In (1) he asked Ioannes Koukoumas, however busy he claimed to be, to return a book he had borrowed. In (2) he wrote to Michael Bourtzes, nephew of the protovestiarites, who had accused him of responsibility for their lack of contact: but Michael had stopped near Ioannes' house and was invited in, but refused, so Ioannes denied the charge. Ioannes wanted to give him a belt, by messenger or face-to face. In (3) the retainers of Michael Taronites, protonobellisimos, congratulated Tzetzes for living near a man who was wealthy as Croesus. In fact, he got nothing from this neighbour but a sense of exclusion, despite his own healthy lifestyle and respectable background. In (4) he thanked Polyeuktos the logariastes for a mule, which, however, Ioannes had been unable to ride; he blamed fate, which jinxed him even in such details, though he was respectable both in descent and in character. In (5) he told Isaakios Komnenos to sack his secretary Lepreos, whom he damned by many negative adjectives, confirmed by many famous secretaries called up from the underworld. Nobody will blame Isaakios or Tzetzes for this essential act, even if Lepreos was a friend. In (6) he wrote for a deacon, seeking a bishopric from a senior bishop who had promised him one. In (7) he wrote to his student Andronikos Kalorabdas, who had not written to him, probably under the influence of some Homeric drug. Andronikos was advised to reprove his employer gently for any broken promises, and as well as his duties to do various exercises from his book on rhetoric. In (8) he wrote to the hegoumenos of the Pantepoptes monastery on behalf of a man earlier saved by shelter given in the monastery. But when he left, he suffered many problems, including imperial displeasure, lost all his money, and now petitioned the hegoumenos to return.