Aben-Judah was the most generous of givers to the needy. But storm and pestilence swept away his wealth. There was left but a single field. In contented faith he maintained his family upon that. He only felt the pangs of poverty when the collectors of the poor called and he had nought to give. Then he and his wife decided to sell half their remaining field and hand the proceeds to the charity collectors. "May the Lord restore thee to thy former prosperity," said they and departed. Turning more assiduously than ever to the plough, that very day he unearthed a treasure. When the collectors called the next year he made up the deficiency of the year preceding. On receiving it they said: "Though many exceeded thy donation then, yet we had placed thee at the top of the list, knowing that thy small gift came from want of means, not from inclination." King Monobases (the son of Helen of Adiabene, who became a proselyte to Judaism, see p. 139), unlocked his ancestral treasures at a time of famine, and distributed them among the poor. His ministers rebuked him saying, "Thy fathers amassed, thou dost squander." "Nay," said the benevolent king, "they preserved earthly, but I, heavenly treasures; theirs could be stolen, mine are beyond reach; theirs were barren, mine are fruitful; they preserved money, I have preserved lives." Said R. Akiba to the not very charitable Tarphon: "Let me profitably invest some money for you." Tarphon handed his four thousand golden denars. Akiba distributed them among the poor, with the scriptural explanation, "He hath given to the needy, his righteousness endureth forever" (Ps. cxii, 9). Humility and Patience. "Teach thy tongue to say: I do not know." "Meekness is better than sacrifice." "God teaches us humility. He chose but a low mount, Sinai, from which to promulgate the Decalogue; in a humble bush He revealed himself to Moses; to Elijah, in a still small voice." "Greatness flees from him who seeks it, and seeks him who flees it." "Rather be persecuted than persecutor." "An aged man, whom Abraham hospitably invited to his tent, refused to join him in prayer to the one spiritual God! Learning that he was a fire-worshipper, Abraham drove him from his door. That night God appeared to Abraham in a vision and said: I have borne with that ignorant man for seventy years; could you not have patiently suffered him one night?" "Seeking the highest good to bestow on Israel, God found nothing better than affliction." ("Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe,"--Shakespeare.)