One day Rabbi Naftali and his wife Rebecca were digging in the garden. Suddenly the rabbi’s shovel stumbled upon something, and he pulled out from under the ground an ancient bottle sealed with wax. He opened it and a genie jumped out.
- Oh, Naftali! - exclaimed the genie. - How grateful I am to you! I spent 1000 years in this damned bottle and promised myself: whoever lets me out of it, I will serve until the end of his days! Ask for what you want!
“Get back into the bottle,” the rabbi answered him.
The genie obeyed.
Naftali sealed the bottle tightly, tied a stone to it, went to the seashore and threw the bottle with the genie as far as possible so that it could not be found.
- What are you doing?! - his wife attacked him. - Why did you do this? This genie could make all our wishes come true!
“First of all,” the rabbi answered her, “what kind of genie is this, who in 1000 years is not even able to get out of the bottle?” Secondly, he promised to serve me until the end of my days. What if after some time it seems to him that my days are dragging on too long? And thirdly, and this is the most important thing, he did not introduce himself.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru