184. The Talmud Chochom Who Became A Ganov

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. I want to tell you a gevaldig story that was told in the Sefer Sipureem U'nevi'im, written by a Hasid of the Mitteler Rebbe, Reb Yankev Kadano. He heard it from people that knew the story from the person who it happened to. There was a city where there were a lot of Jews in that city, big community, and there was a Jew there that was a big Talmid Chaham, and he was very respected. Everybody respected him, but he was very, very poor. Whatever he did to try to do business, he, he didn't succeed. Couldn't make money. He and his family were starving. It was so bad. Sometimes they didn't have food for several days. The kids were crying and crying, and he didn't know what to do. He went to the Keruzhetz Maggid, the big tzadik. The Keruzhetz Maggid was a Talmid of the Mezritcher Maggid. So the Keruzhetz Maggid told him, "Listen, I see in your Neshama that your mazel-- you will have not... You have no mazel in any business. No matter what business you'll do, you will not succeed. You will not make money. It's not possible for you to make money in any business except for one business." And that's it. And the Keruzhetz Maggid started to stop talking to him. So the, the, the Jew asked the Keruzhetz Maggid, "Wouldn't you tell me what that business is? You said there's one business I will succeed. I will have a atzlacha. I will succeed. What is that business?" He

01:59 said, "Nah, I'm not gonna tell you because I know you're not gonna do it." So the Jew said, "Rebbe, I'll do anything. You know, we're starving. My family is starving. We're gonna die from, from, from, from, from starvation if we don't... I don't get money. I'll do anything to get money." So the Keruzhetz Maggid, Keruzhetz Maggid said to him, "You know what the business that you would be successful in? Stealing. If you decide to start stealing from stores, from everywhere, you will be very successful, but that's the only thing you'll be successful in." So the, the, the Jew said... He's a big Talmid Chaham. He says, "Rebbe, how can I steal? Chas v'Shalom. I mean, uh, make a business out of stealing?" The Keruzhetz Maggid told him, "You see? I told you you're not gonna do it, so there's no point. So I, I don't know. I c- I can't help you." This Hasid went back home, and he was very, very down, very depressed. And a few days went by, and the family was starving, starving. Finally, it got to a point where there was no food in the house at all. Nothing. Nothing. And the family was starving for a few days. They were like... Babies were crying. The kids were crying. There's no food. Finally, this, this, this, this Hasid, this big Talmid Chaham decided, "Listen, I have no choice." You know, it says Pikuach Nefesh. If your life is in danger, you're allowed to be Mechallel Shabbos. So if your life

03:30 is in danger, you're allowed to steal, and that's the Halacha. The Halacha is if somebody's in real danger, and he's gonna die, and the only way to survive is by stealing something, you're allowed to, but except that you have to pay back. When you have the money, you allow... You have to pay back. Right? That's why there's a story in the Gemara like this, where Tanaim were walking down the road and one Tana got so st... He was so starving that he started feeling like his eyes, his vision, it was blurry. He couldn't see anymore, and he knew that if he doesn't eat something now, he might die soon. So he was near an orchard, a farm, and he went and pulled off a, a, an apple from the tree and started eating it. He stole. But of course, he paid it, he paid it back later. When he got home, he got the money and went back to the farmer and paid him. So Pikuach Nefesh, you can do anything for Pikuach Nefesh except for three things: Aveiras Zera, and killing someone, and adultery. These are the three Aveiras. But, but to steal, if your life is in danger, you're allowed to steal, but you have to pay back. So this Hasid thought to himself, "You know what? I'll steal. Meanwhile, my family will have something to eat. And when Hashem gives me more money, who knows? One day I'll have Parnassa, and I'll make extra money, then I'll pay it back." He goes

04:49 to a store, and he breaks in, and he goes to the register, and he manages to open the, the, the cash register, and takes out only one s- gold coin. One gold coin. There was a lot of money there, but he took out only one, 'cause he only needs to eat. And he snuck out of the store. It was the middle of the night. He went back home, and he bought food for the wh- family, and they had to eat for the next few days. He made sure that they didn't eat too much because he wanted to make sure that the food would last for a long time because he didn't wanna steal. He hated stealing. He didn't wanna steal, but he had no choice. So he wanted to make sure that the food will last as long as possible. And so they lived for a few days, and then they were starving again, so he waited for a day or two until they were really starving badly. It was like Pikuach Nefesh, and then he went to another store and stole. Now, the first store, when the first store owner came the next morning to his store, he sees the door is open. So he couldn't believe it. There must be Ganavim, thieves that came in, and they must have stolen all his stuff from the store. There was a lot of very expensive stuff inside the store. And so he was panicking. He opens the door, and he sees that everything is there.

06:06 There's nothing missing. Then he goes to the cash register, and he sees, wow, all the money is here except for one coin. What a strange ganav. Usually a ganav who steals, he tries to steal as much as he can. You know, take the whole cash register, empty it in a bag, and take all the money with you. But he didn't do that. What a, what a strange, funny ganav. Then the next night-- the next time when he stole, he went to another store and did the exact same thing. Only took one coin, so enough for him to buy food for the next few days for his family because they were starving. The next storekeeper also sees that, whoa, the door is open, and the guy didn't take anything. Only took one coin from the cash register. And so every few nights, he would go and steal from a store. And because he had a special, uh, success, hatzlacha, the Rabbi Moshe told him, "You will be very successful when you steal. Nobody will catch him." And nobody did catch him. Uh, finally, the whole city's-- hears about it. There's a ganav that goes from every night to another store, steals only one coin. Not every night, every, uh, every few nights, right? He did it, like, maybe once a week because he had enough food for a week, and then he would go and steal again. So people were, like, shocked. What was going on? How come nobody can f-catch the ganav? So finally, they

07:31 decided that all the stores are gonna put guards all night, and, and when the guy comes, they'll catch him. But for some reason, he kept stealing and stealing, and nobody saw him. Nobody understood what's going on. Finally, the big governor of the, of the whole region, of the town, heard about it, and he was, like, amazed. What's going on? People are telling him this incredible story, that there's a ganav, and nobody knows who he is, and he steals every few nights in another store, and they can't catch him. And they put guards in front of the stores, and they can't catch him. So he said, "You know what? I need to come see this myself, and I will catch him." And he comes to the city, and he's a very important man. He's the, like, the governor, and everybody knows who he is. He says, "Listen, make sure there's guards watching, several guards watching in front of every store, and I will go during the night and look from store to store, see if-- catch-- see if I can catch him." So for f-few nights, the, the, the governor couldn't find him because this was a time when he had enough food in the house, so he wasn't going to steal. But then came one night when he was going to steal, and the governor was dressed like a simple person. He wasn't dressed like an important person, so y-you didn't know who he was, right? So the, the Jew, the Hasid didn't know that

08:59 this was the governor. But the governor saw him. The guards didn't see him. The governor saw a person going in the back of a store, s-trying to break in, and he followed him quietly, and then he went into the store behind him. He said, "Ah, I caught you." And the Hasid thought it was just another person in the town. He didn't know who it was because he was dressed in very simple clothes. So the governor says, "Listen, you're the thief that everybody's looking for. For so long, people have been trying to find you. Now I caught you. Come with me. I'm gonna tell the governor." He didn't-- He knew that the Hasid didn't know that he was the governor, but he pretended that he was a simple person, and he's gonna take him to the governor, and the governor will judge him and make a court case against him, and they'll put him in prison and the dungeon. And the Hasid starts crying, "No, no, please don't, don't. You can see that I'm not a ganav. I really don't wanna steal. You see, if I was a ganav, I would have stolen so much. I would've taken everything out of the store. You can see everybody knows that I-- it's a-- I'm a very strange ganav. Why? Because I don't really steal. I don't really steal. I just take one because I'm starving. My family is starving. But I really expect to pay back. One day, I will pay back when Hashem will bless me

10:11 and give me, uh, more money, then I'll be able to pay back every single person that I stole from." And he took notes from every person where he stole, so he knows where to give back, how much to give back. So the man-- so, so the governor, who's disguised in simple clothes, says, "No, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna take you to the governor now, and we, we're going to go resolve this and, and, and punish you." And the Jew, Hasid begs him, "Please, I'm a very important person in the town. People respect me. I'm a Talmud Chacham. They think I'm a, an important person. You know what embarrassment it's gonna be. Please don't do that to me. Please, I beg you. I beg you. Don't, don't." And he cried, and he cried. Finally, uh, he tells him, "You know what? I will do what you say. I will do what you ask, but you have to do one thing for me." The governor just won a million rubles in a lottery. It's a lot of money. A million rubles, like $150 million today. This was a lot of money. So a million rubles he won in a big lottery, and he has all the money in a box in a special room hidden under a bed. If you will climb in... I see you're so successful at stealing. You know how to steal well without getting caught. So if you can climb into the house of the governor and go to that room where

11:41 he hides the box, and you come out and bring it to me, we'll split half for me and half for you. I get a half a million. You get a half a million." Now, why did the governor do that? He he wanted to see if he can do it, if he could actually climb into his own house, yeah, the governor's house. But he didn't know that he was the governor. He thought he was just another person who wants to steal from the governor. But really, it was the governor himself speaking to him. But he didn't know. The Hasid didn't know. So he said, "No, I can't do this, please. I don't wanna... Don't you see? I don't wanna steal. I'm only stealing what I need to eat because I, I'm, I'm, I'm, otherwise I'm gonna die. But I don't like this. I don't wanna steal." So he said, "Listen, then I'm taking you to the governor and everybody's gonna know about it." So the Hasid said to him, "You know what? Okay, okay, fine, fine. Show me, where do I go?" So the, the, the, the, the, the, the governor takes him and says, "Okay, see? This is the house of the governor. There's a window. Climb into the window, and you go through the first room, and you go to the second room. Under the bed, there is a big box. It's full of money. And you climb out back, and you come back to me, and we'll split the money." The Hasid had

12:47 no choice, and he climbed in and found the box. No, he found the box, but he came out without the box from the window, and he says to the, to the person he didn't know was the governor, he says to him, "You know what? I'm so happy I didn't steal the box. I, I think we need to go to the governor and tell him that two of his servants, I overheard two of his servants saying, 'You know, tomorrow morning when the governor is gonna want his tea, we'll put the poison in his tea, and we'll kill him with the poison. Then we'll be able to take the box.'" You see, when the governor won the lottery, nobody knew about it. He didn't want anybody to know. Only his servants knew about it. So the servants, they knew about the treasure that he had, so they said they, they planned together they're going to give him poison in his tea, and then he's gonna die in the morning. Then they'll steal all his money. The Hasid heard that when he was inside the house. He climbed through the window inside the house. He heard it. So he came back and told the person outside to wait for him, who was the governor really, and he said to him, "I, I, I think we should save the life of the governor because I just heard they wanna poison him. I'm glad I didn't take it. I think we should go to the governor together. He'll probably give

14:06 us a lot of money a-as, as, as a reward for, for saving his life, so we can make a lot of money this way." Uh, when the governor heard this, of course, he didn't tell him, "I'm the governor." He said, "You know what? Okay, don't worry. You go home. Give me your hat. I just... All I want is your hat." The Hasid didn't have a choice. He gave him the hat. And the governor, he, he was the governor, he went home, and he realized what the Hasid had told him. So the next morning, uh, his servants brought him his tea. He said to the servant, "Okay, I'd like you to tea, drink from my tea." And the servant said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want." And, and no matter how much the governor said, "You must drink my tea." He said, "No, no, no, no, I don't feel like drinking tea. I don't feel like..." 'Cause he knew about the poison. The, the servant knew about the poison. So finally the governor says, "Okay, where's the dog? Here, give the dog some of the tea." And the dog died. So the governor saw that it's true what the Hasid told him, and he took the two servants and put them in the dungeon and punished them so that they would never, never come out, never come out of the prison. Then he went and called the Hasid, um, and said to him, "Do you recognize this hat?" He said, "Yes, this is

15:32 my hat." "Okay, here, you take the hat. But I want you to know that I'm the governor, and you saved my life. In essence, I should give you the whole treasure because it's enough you saved my life. I should give you all the money for saving my life. But if you don't mind, would you mind if we split the money? I have to give you half, and you take half." The Hasid, "Of course." And that's how the Hasid became very rich. He had a half a million rubles that he got, this enormous amount of money. He went back to every s-shopkeeper and gave him back a coin, and he told them the truth, that, that he was Pikuach Nefesh, and that's why he took the money. And he paid back every shopkeeper, and he became extremely wealthy and a big talmid. And he started learning Torah all day because he had plenty of money. When he learned and davened he became a big Hasid, and everybody... He gave a lot of tzedakah, and everybody respected him.