"What you increase bestow on good works," says the Hindu sage.
"Charity is to money what salt is to meat," says the Hebrew philosopher:
if the wealthy are not charitable their riches will perish. In
illustration of this maxim is the story of
_Rabbi Jochonan and the Poor Woman._
One day Rabbi Jochonan was riding outside the city of Jerusalem,
followed by his disciples, when he observed a poor woman laboriously
gathering the grain that dropped from the mouths of the horses of the
Arabs as they were feeding. Looking up and recognising Jochonan, she
cried: "O Rabbi, assist me!" "Who art thou?" demanded Jochonan. "I am
the daughter of Nakdimon, the son of Guryon." "Why, what has become of
thy father's money--the dowry thou receivedst on thy wedding day?" "Ah,
Rabbi, is there not a saying in Jerusalem, 'the salt was wanting to the
money?'" "But thy husband's money?" "That followed the other: I have
lost them both." The good Rabbi wept for the poor woman and helped her.
Then said he to his disciples, as they continued on their way: "I
remember that when I signed that woman's marriage contract her father
gave her as a dowry one million of gold dinars, and her husband was a
man of considerable wealth besides."
* * * * *
The ill-fated riches of Nakdimon are referred to in another tale, as a
lesson to those who are not charitable according to their means:
_A Safe Investment.
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