The four cheap eaters have been eating the cheapest food from a specific public kitchen in Vienna from Monday to Friday for years. They come into the center of Koller’s scientific attention when one day he goes not to the old ash tree, but to the old oak and realizes that they represent the central piece of his study on physiognomy titled The Cheap Eaters. The hints that Koller makes to him about the content of this study are attempted to be suggested by the narrator - a bank clerk and former schoolmate of Koller.