There was a Jew in Cordova whose name was Jacob the broker. That man was good and faithful, readily obedient to the command of the judge. One day a necklace of choicest stones and pearls was committed to his care that he should sell it for five hundred pieces of gold. And it came to pass that, while he was carrying the necklace in his hand, a lord, one of the king’s nobles, met him, and said to him: ‘Jacob, what kind of a necklace is this?’ He replied: ‘My lord, it was handed over to me that I should sell it.’ ‘For how much wouldst thou sell it?’ He replied: ‘For five hundred pieces of gold.’ The nobleman said to him: ‘Wilt thou give it to me for four hundred?’ He replied: ‘I cannot, for its owner warned me not to take for it less than five hundred pieces of gold.’ Whereupon the nobleman said: ‘Take it to my house, and if it is good in the sight of the mistress of the house, I will buy it.’ So he walked with him until he reached the gate of his house. The nobleman then said: ‘Stand here, until I have brought out unto thee the money or the necklace.’ He entered the house, and closed the door behind him. The Jew waited until evening, but nobody came forth from the door of the nobleman’s house. And it came to pass at the going down of the sun that Jacob went to his house full of grief, so that death would have been pleasant unto his soul; care settled in his heart, and wounded it. He came home, and passed the night lying on the ground. He ate no bread, neither he nor his wife and children, and put not off his garments. He closed not his eyes and eyelids, and turned about as clay under the seal. He rose early in the morning to go to the house of the lord, and behold, he was coming forth from his house. When Jacob saw him, he ran to meet him, and said unto him: ‘My lord, dost thou desire to buy the necklace, or wilt thou return it unto me that I may sell it to another man?’ But he said: ‘Which necklace? Hast thou seen one of the children of Anak?’[154] And Jacob said unto him: ‘The pearl necklace which thou tookest yesterday from my hand.’ Whereupon the nobleman said unto him: ‘Madman, lunatic, as my soul liveth, and as the king’s soul liveth, were it not that I regard my honor, I would have lifted up thy head from off thee, and would have covered thee with the blood of thy liver.’