Managing a house can be very challenging. It happened that a husband wanted to ease the stress on his wife and so they decided to hire domestic to help with the needs of the home.
After many interviews, Rahima, a woman with an excellent reputation in the neighborhood was hired. Rahima seemed to be a perfect match to the needs of the wife. After speaking to her for a few moments, it was obvious that Rahima was just the person to relieve the overworked wife.
Everything was going very well until a neighbor, Yente Feiga, planted the seeds of distrust by mentioning that Rahima was Mizrachi – more Arab than Jewish.
Yente Feiga came to the house one morning and found Rahima briskly pushing a broom. “If a woman like Rahima agrees to work for you, she certainly does not do it for the sake of the meager salary you pay her.”
“So what else would she want?”
“You know how Arabs are. They steal!”
The husband and wife strongly rejected this baseless slander. Rahima would never do such a thing. A few days later, the wife noticed that while sweeping the floor, Rahima never looked her in the eye and the woman’s dress had very large pockets pockets.
As the days went by, the husband and wife carefully watched Rahima and noticed that as she was cleaning our silverware she seemed to smile. The suspicious signs grew in number. Tension mounted and became unbearable. The couple thought about calling the police.
The wife realized that so far all the “evidence” against Rahima was circumstantial. Yente Feiga offered her advice.
“You must trip her up. I told you her kind cannot be trusted.” Now listen carefully, “Hide something, for instance a bank note, somewhere in the house, and if she finds and does not return it, you can have her arrested.”
Next day the couple set the trap. After careful thought, they decided to hide a five-pound note under a rug.
When the husband and wife returned from the market that afternoon, Rahima met them,
“Shalom I found ten pounds under the rug while I was cleaning…”
The couple were ashamed and began to argue, “In fact I have always trusted our Rahima,” the wife said. “I knew you were wrong when you stubbornly insisted that such an honest woman could bring it upon herself to steal.”
“Oh, so it was I who said that she stole!” the husband shouted. “That’s a fine thing to say! For the past two days I have tried to protect this fine woman against your slanderous insinuations.”
“Hahaha. You’ve got to be joking.”
“So I am funny, what?”
“I lost my temper, but maybe you could tell me why you hid a ten-pound note under the rug, when we had agreed on a five-pound one? Had Rahima pinched the money—which naturally was out of the question—we would needlessly have lost five pounds.”
The couple did not speak to one another for hours.
When Rahima had finished her day’s work, she came to say good night.
“Good night, Rahima,” the wife said warmly. “Don’t be late tomorrow.”
“All right,” the domestic replied. “Is there anything madam wishes to give me?”
“Give you something? No, Rahima, I don’t think so.”
This answer sparked the neighborhood’s noisiest brawl in two thousand years.
“So madam does not want to give me anything!” Rahima shrieked, and her eyes spurted fire and brimstone. “And what about my money? Hey? You know only too well that you put a five-pound note under the rug, so that I should steal it!”
The wife changed color and the husband hung his head in shame. .
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Rahima became impatient. “Perhaps you want to keep my money?”
“Sorry, ma’am.” The husband answered filled with shame. “Here are your five pounds, ma’am.”
Rahima grabbed the five pounds out of his hand and put them into one of her large pockets.
“It goes without saying,” she added, “that I won’t work in a house where they steal. Luckily I found out in time. . . . One can’t trust anybody nowadays. . . . Terrible.”
The husband and wife never saw her again, and the worst part of the affair is that Yente Feiga spread the rumor all over the neighborhood that they tried to rob a poor woman.
May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)
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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (Joel 1:3)
