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Of course, reporting an error benefits the author, so I advise to write to him/her. A polite form is: Dear X, I am reading your interesting paper Y, and I have difficulty in understanding why A implies B on p. C. I will appreciate it very much if you explain this to me (help me to understand).

I received such letters several times. In most cases I was able to explain. In one case I published a correction. And of course I am thankful to all who wrote these letters.

When I was a student I wrote to one famous mathematician: Dear X. Let me bring to your attention that conjecture W which you state in your paper Y seems to be proved by Picard in 1880 in his paper Z. Do you think his proof is correct?

Of course, reporting an error benefits the author, so I advise to write to him/her. A polite form is: Dear X, I am reading your interesting paper Y, and I have difficulty in understanding why A implies B on p. C. I will appreciate it very much if you explain this to me (help me to understand).

I received such letters several times. In most cases I was able to explain. In one case I published a correction. And of course I am thankful to all who wrote these letters.

When I was a student I wrote to one famous mathematician: Dear X. Let me bring to your attention that conjecture W which you state in your paper Y seems to be proved by Picard in 1880 in his paper Z. Do you think his proof is correct? X did not answer this letter, and few months later I learned that he died.

Of course, reporting an error benefits the author, so I advise to write to him/her. A polite form is: Dear X, I am reading your interesting paper Y, and I have difficulty in understanding why A implies B on p. C. I will appreciate very much if you explain me (help to understand) this.

I received such letters several times. In most cases I was able to explain. In one case I published a correction. And of course I am thankful to all who wrote these letters.

When I was a student I wrote to one famous mathematician: Dear X. Let me bring to your attention that conjecture W which you state in your paper Y seems to be proved by Picard in 1880 in his paper Z. Do you think his proof is correct?

Of course, reporting an error benefits the author, so I advise to write to him/her. A polite form is: Dear X, I am reading your interesting paper Y, and I have difficulty in understanding why A implies B on p. C. I will appreciate it very much if you explain this to me (help me to understand).

I received such letters several times. In most cases I was able to explain. In one case I published a correction. And of course I am thankful to all who wrote these letters.

When I was a student I wrote to one famous mathematician: Dear X. Let me bring to your attention that conjecture W which you state in your paper Y seems to be proved by Picard in 1880 in his paper Z. Do you think his proof is correct?

Of course, reporting an error benefits the author, so I advise to write to him/her. The polite form is: Dear X, I am reading your interesting paper Y, and I have difficulty in understanding why A implies B on p. C. I will appreciate very much if you explain me (help to understand) this.

I received such letters several times. In most cases I was able to explain. In one case I published a correction. And of course I am thankful to all who wrote these letters.

When I was a student I wrote to one famous mathematician: Dear X. Let me bring to your attention that conjecture W which you state in your paper Y seems to be proved by Picard in 1880 in his paper Z. Do you think his proof is correct?

Of course, reporting an error benefits the author, so I advise to write to him/her. A polite form is: Dear X, I am reading your interesting paper Y, and I have difficulty in understanding why A implies B on p. C. I will appreciate very much if you explain me (help to understand) this.

I received such letters several times. In most cases I was able to explain. In one case I published a correction. And of course I am thankful to all who wrote these letters.

When I was a student I wrote to one famous mathematician: Dear X. Let me bring to your attention that conjecture W which you state in your paper Y seems to be proved by Picard in 1880 in his paper Z. Do you think his proof is correct?