Hussein Mohammed never dreamt that roadside bombs and suicide attacks in Baghdad would make him a fortune.
"With every victim that falls to an explosion and suicide attack, the demand for coffins increases and my work flourishes," said the coffin-maker in his tiny shop in the heart of the war-torn capital.
Several people have been killed on the doorsteps of Mohammed's shop on the notorious Haifa Street, now an eerie no-go zone where a few nervous motorists speed past, only too aware that the insurgents' favoured tactics include roadside bombs. American snipers keep watch from the rooftops.
"During the days of Saddam (Hussein), I used to make one coffin a day. Now, I make scores of them and the demand increases with every suicide car bomb that explodes," said the 67-year-old Baghdadi.
With a daily fare of bombs and shootings up and down the country, it is rare that a day passes in the capital with no one falling victim to violence.
Many believe it is a bad omen to speak about death or even walk near Mohammed's shop, but for the coffin-maker, who inherited the family business, the plain wooden coffin is "a vehicle that transfers people to God".
"It is my business and I deal with it. I'm not afraid of death and I put in feeling and passion with every coffin I make," he said.
Mohammed's work has given him a unique philosophy in his understanding of life and death.
"At birth families buy cradles for their babies and at death they buy coffins. The coffin is a vehicle that takes people to meet their God," he said.
In his business there is no room for sectarianism. Coffins are made for both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and sell for between 30 and 40 dollars.
Muslim dead are taken to cemeteries in coffins but their bodies are then taken out to be buried, in a shroud, directly in the ground.
Many of the used coffins are then donated to mosques and recycled.
Scores of them are displayed on the pavement outside the shop prompting some pedestrians to quickly cross the street while reciting verses of Koran.
Four workers help Mohammed in his shop that has neither sign nor telephone.
"I do not need a signboard because I am very famous," he said, adding sarcastically that his customers cannot use telephones.
"Lots of people have asked me to change my job and I always answer: If I didn't make coffins, how would you bury your dead?
"I am happy with what I'm doing. I remind many people of death and when they see me they remember God and return to their faith."
But Mohammed's constant smile angers some.
"Once a lady told me: 'You're always happy because you earn your living from the death of people and for that reason you always need them to die'," he said.
Blair blasts Britons over Iraq war