Witos also illustrated Ptak's parsimony with an episode that took place in the first months after the establishment of the Polish state, around 1919, when a Polish military detachment commandeered Ptak some oats. Poland was at the time in a war with the Soviet Union to the eastern border. “Mr. Ptak defended himself against giving away oats so much that they had to be overtaken by force. It resented and at the same time upset him so much that not only did he cover the soldiers with insults on the spot, but also in public.”