The holy rabbi of the village was out walking through the market place when he saw a man so upset that he was crying. He went over and asked, “Why are you so upset?”
The man began telling of his misfortune. “I am a storekeeper in a nearby village. I left my home with a hundred rubles in order to buy goods for my store. After arriving here, though I looked in all my pockets, I could not find the money. Now I am lost, because I cannot buy goods, and I have no way to earn a living.”
“Don’t worry,” said the holy rabbi, “I found your money. Come to my home and I will return it.”
The holy rabbi guided the man to his home and sat him at the table and served him a meal. After the storekeeper had eaten and was satisfied, the holy rabbi gave him a hundred rubles.
The man’s eyes lit up, and he thanked the holy rabbi abundantly. He took the money and bought all the goods that he needed for his store.
As soon as he arrived home, his wife said jokingly, “Why are you always so absentminded? You may have gone to buy goods, but you forgot the money at home.”
He realized what had happened; the holy rabbi had given him a hundred rubles of his own.
The next morning the man returned to the village where he met the holy rabbi, immediately went to his house, and told him, “Rebbe, you fooled me. I never lost anything, and you never found anything. I had forgotten my money at home.”
He then placed the hundred rubles before the holy rabbi.
“I cannot accept the money,” said the holy rabbi. “I gave it to you as a gift.”
“But I don’t want gifts,” said the storekeeper.
Each was adamant. They finally decided to go to the beis din (rabbinic court) to determine who should have the money.
The holy rabbi explained to the court, “whoever consoles a poor person with words of comfort and encouragement receives eleven blessings, as it is stated: ‘And if you draw out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall your light shine in darkness, and your gloom shall be as the noonday. And the Lord shall guide you continually, and satisfy your thirst in drought… And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places, you shall raise up the foundations of many generations’” (Isaiah 58:10–12).
The storekeeper responded that the money the holy rabbi gave him was not his money he thought lost, but the personal money of the holy rabbi. He refused to accept the money.
The holy rabbi countered, “the Holy One, Blessed be He, furnishes him with money with which to perform his acts of charity.” (Bava Basra 9b)
The beis din found this an interesting case. Each claimed that he did not want the money, and that the other should receive it.
In the end, after hearing both sides, the beis din ruled that the holy rabbi was to keep the money in his possession to be used for charitable purposes, and that whatever mitzvah (a commandment to be performed as a religious duty) would come of the use of the money would be considered as done by both of them.
May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)
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