Shows like the tractate middoth

"The Tractate Middoth" is a short ghost story by British author M. R. James. It was published in 1911 in More Ghost Stories, James's second collection of ghost stories.

Mr. Garrett, an employee of a university library, searches for a Mishnaic tractate for John Eldred, an impatient library patron. He encounters a black-clad clergyman who also seems interested in the book. The clergyman's appearance–his head appears to be enshrouded in cobwebs and he smells of mould and dust–causes Garrett a severe shock and he faints. He is sent home to recover, and later decides to recuperate at the seaside.

On the train to his destination, he meets the elderly Mrs. Simpson and her daughter, proprietors of a boarding house who offer him lodgings. Over the course of his stay, they become very friendly. The Simpsons confide in him that they are losing a struggle with a rival heir to the estate of an eccentric clergyman named Rant, who died two decades earlier. As they describe the situation, Garrett realizes that Eldred is the rival. The tractate supposedly contains a hidden secret will that would supersede an earlier last will and testament, and Garrett decides to help the Simpsons by preventing Eldred from destroying this document.