THE JEWISH THIEF
"You shall not steal." (Yitro 20:13)
And then there was the time that a merchant returned to his town of Whitfield from a buying trip, with a wagon loaded with merchandise. He arrived late at night and was too tired to open up his store and unload the wagon. Instead, he un-harnessed the horses and left the wagon outside by his store, planning to unload it the next morning. After all, he thought, "Who would steal such a large wagon?"
Later that night, a thief came by, harnessed other horses to the wagon and stole it together with all the merchandise.
The next morning, the merchant got up early and rushed to his store and found his wagon missing. He was beside himself. A number of his friends joined him in his frantic search through the town. But there was no sign of the wagon.
The merchant sent a letter with a friend to the Baal Shem Tov advising him of his loss and requesting a blessing that the wagon and his merchandise be returned. When the messenger arrived in Medzibush, he found the Baal Shem Tov kissing the mezuzah of his house, as he left to attend a Bris (ritual circumcision) in the holy community of Derzane. The Baal Shem Tov took the letter from the messenger and quickly read through it. He then instructed the messenger, "Please wait here until I return." The messenger agreed and took lodging at the local inn. The Baal Shem Tov left in his wagon for the long trip to the city of Derzane accompanied by Reb Zev his scribe and Alexei his wagon drive. As they were entering the city, the Baal Shem Tov saw a wagon loaded with merchandise in the distance. He asked, "Reb Zev, Do you see that loaded wagon over there pulled by two horses?"
"Yes," answered Reb Zev.
"Do you remember the man that spoke to me just before we left?" inquired the Baal Shem Tov.
Reb Zev nodded yes.
"That man," continued the Baal Shem Tov, "was sent by a merchant from Whitfield whose wagon full of merchandise was stolen. They requested my blessing that the wagon and the merchandise would be found and returned because it represented all of the Merchant's wealth. And that very wagon full of merchandise is the one that was stolen. So when we get to town, immediately ask around and find out at what inn the "owner" of the wagon is staying. Then, go to that inn, find the wagon owner and tell him that you know the wagon was stolen from Whitfield. Tell the 'owner' to give it to you to return to the merchant. Meanwhile, I'll go to the Bris."
Immediately upon arriving in town, Reb Zev inquired and found that the man driving the wagon was staying at a certain inn. He went to that inn and found the man praying in his Tallis (prayer shawl) and Tefillin (Phylacteries). Reb Zev was reluctant to call the man a thief since he appeared innocent as he prayed like any honest Jewish man.
Reb Zev rushed to the Baal Shem Tov and told him what he had seen.
The Baal Shem Tov got very excited. "Return immediately and tell that thief as I instructed you. Otherwise he will soon leave town and the wagon and merchandise will be lost."
Reb Zev ran back to the inn where the thief was staying. This time he found the man eating breakfast. He questioned the man about the wagon and the merchandise. The man responded with a good story. When the man stepped out for a minute, Reb Zev questioned the innkeeper. "Did that man drink a lot of whiskey like some kind of thief?"
"Oh no," answered the inn keeper, "He just had one drink like many of us after the morning prayers."
Reb Zev left again without directly confronting the man. He returned to the Baal Shem Tov and reported all that had happened. He concluded with frustration in his voice, "Rebbe, you must be mistaken. He is an upstanding Jewish merchant and can't be a thief."
This time the Baal Shem Tov stood up and pushed Reb Zev to the door saying, "He is not an upstanding Jewish merchant, he is a Jewish thief. Now go and confront him and call him a thief. Then prove your accusation with the following signs." After Reb Zev heard the signs, he rushed back to the inn.
As soon as he entered the inn, he walked up to the man and said that the Baal Shem Tov had sent him. He then told him that the Baal Shem Tov knew he was a thief and had stolen the wagon and the merchandise. Further, he offered to prove it with the signs the Baal Shem Tov told him. "After the wagon was stolen, you hid for three nights in the forest until the owner gave up looking. During that time, you slept in an abandoned cabin near the river. Then you stayed at two inns until you arrived here in the city of Derazene." After Reb Zev told him the signs, he warned the thief, "You had better return the wagon and merchandise to the Baal Shem Tov. He'll take it back to the merchant. Otherwise, I don't even want to think about what might happen to you."
The thief was flabbergasted. "You're right," he said, "I confess, I am the thief. Take the wagon with the merchandise."
Reb Zev asked the innkeeper to guard the wagon and merchandise because he was going to the Bris with the Baal Shem Tov.
When the thief heard Reb Zev speak with the inn keeper, he thought, "Now that I'm a poor man, I might as well go to the Bris and eat with the other beggars." During the meal after the Bris, the thief approached the Baal Shem Tov and asked, "I have a question to ask you Rabbi. Since you know how thieves steal and where they sleep, you must be able to see better things than this. Why do you bother to pay attention to bad things? Why don't you look at good things instead?"
The Baal Shem Tov answered: "That is a very profound question." He began to expound words of Torah on this topic until the time of Mincha (the afternoon prayers) arrived, and still he had not finished.
Without notice, the Baal Shem Tov looked at Reb Zev and said, "We should be going. That messenger is still waiting for us to return with the merchant's wagon and merchandise."
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Shivchei HaBesht and translated in In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov by Ben-Amos and Mintz.
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