"Well," returned the other, "why didst thou not tell me this; could I not have distributed my means without thy aid?"
"Nay," said Akiba, "it is a greater virtue to cause another to give than to give one's self."
Rabbi Jochanan, the son of Lakkai, was once riding outside of Jerusalem, and his pupils had followed him. They saw a poor woman collecting the grain which dropped from the mouths and troughs of some feeding cattle, belonging to Arabs. When she saw the Rabbi, she addressed him in these brief words, "O Rabbi, assist me." He replied, "My daughter, whose daughter art thou?" "I am the daughter of Nakdimon, the son of Guryon," she answered.
"Why, what has become of thy father's money?" asked the Rabbi; "the amount which thou didst receive as a dowry on thy wedding day?"
"Ah," she replied, "is there not a saying in Jerusalem, 'The salt was wanting to the money?'"
"And thy husband's money," continued the Rabbi; "what of that?"
"That followed the other," she answered; "I have lost them both."
The Rabbi turned to his scholars and said:—
"I remember, when I signed her marriage contract, her father gave her as a dowry one million golden denars, and her husband was wealthy in addition thereto."
The Rabbi sympathized with the woman, helped her, and wept for her.