Forty Lashes and a Lottery

Once the Tiferes Shlomo chased his chassidim with a towel and began to strike them. One chassid was not quick enough to get away and received a blow. He was saddened and thought, “Woe to me, what will be this year, now that the Rebbe has hit me?” By the time he got home he was so distressed that he fell ill and lay in bed.

The chassidim told the Tiferes Shlomo that the man was in bed suffering because of the blow. The Rebbe said, “Call that lazy good-for-nothing and bring him here, so I can give him forty lashes. Then the fool will win the lottery.” And so it was. The chassid won the lottery of forty thousand silver rubles.