Even though Michael Smurfit is sitting on a £17 million paper profit after taking up a load of share options last April, he still took his £1.17 million half year dividends from the company in hard cash rather than taking shares in the company.Still, opting for cash instead of shares has been a wise investment decision for the Smurfit chairman and chief executive. The unfortunate shareholders who opted for a scrip dividend had their extra shares issued at just under 220p each.Since the scrip dividend was priced, the Smurfit share price has plummeted and stood at just 183p early this week. So the new shares issued for the half-year dividend have fallen 36p in the space of a few weeks.If Michael Smurfit had taken shares instead of cash, he would not be more than £190,000 poorer!