There lived in a town a man who loved to study Torah. He had his own business, his wife helped him, and everything went like clockwork. But one day he went broke. To feed his beloved wife and children, he went to a distant city and became a teacher in a cheder. Taught children Hebrew.
At the end of the year, he received the money he earned - one hundred gold coins - and wanted to send it to his beloved wife, but in those days there was no mail yet. Anyone who wanted to send money from one city to another had to transfer it with someone who was going there, paying, of course, for the service.
Just through the city where the Torah scholar was teaching children, a peddler of small goods passed by, and the teacher asked him:
-Where are you heading?
The peddler named different cities, among which was the one where the teacher’s family lived. The teacher asked to give his wife one hundred gold coins. The peddler refused, but the teacher began to persuade him:
- Good sir, my poor wife is in dire need, she cannot feed the children. If you take the trouble to hand over this money, you can give her as many as you want out of a hundred gold coins.
The greedy peddler agreed, believing that he could deceive the Torah teacher.
“Okay,” he said, “only on one condition: write to your wife that I can give her as much of this money as I want.”
The poor teacher had no choice, and he wrote the following letter to his wife:
“I am sending one hundred gold coins on the condition that this peddler of small goods will give you as much of them as he wants.”
Arriving at the town, the peddler called the teacher’s wife, handed her a letter and said:
- Here is a letter from your husband, and here is the money. According to our agreement, I must give you as many of them as I want. So I’ll give you one coin, and I’ll keep the ninety-nine for myself.
The poor woman asked to have mercy on her, but the peddler had not a heart, but a stone. He remained deaf to her plea and insisted that her husband agreed to such a condition, therefore he, the peddler, has every right to give her as much as he wants. So he gives away even one coin of his own free will.
The teacher's wife took the peddler to the chief rabbi of the town, who was famous for his intelligence and resourcefulness.
The rabbi listened carefully to both sides and began to persuade the peddler to act according to the laws of mercy and justice, but he did not want to know anything. Suddenly a thought struck the rabbi.
“Show me the letter,” he said.
He read it for a long time and carefully, then looked sternly at the peddler and asked:
- How much of this money do you want to take for yourself?
“I already said,” answered the greedy peddler, “ninety-nine coins.”
The rabbi stood up and said angrily:
- If so, it means that you must give them, according to the agreement, to this woman, and take only one coin for yourself.
- Justice! Where is the justice? I demand justice! - the peddler shouted.
“To maintain justice, you need to fulfill the agreement,” said the rabbi. “It’s written here in black and white: “Dear wife, the peddler will give you as much of this money as he wants.” How much do you want? Ninety-nine coins? So give them back. And the matter is over!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru