The Wine and the Wallet

"Be cautious in judgment" (Avos 1:1). Rav Ovadia Yosef used to illustrate this Mishnah with a story about Rav Shlomo Kluger.

It is told that a Jew owned a wine store, and in its cellar he kept many barrels of wine worth a large sum of money. He had a helper who worked in the store. One day, as Shabbos approached, the helper decided that the perfect place to hide his money pouch was in the locked cellar among the barrels. The pouch held all his savings, some two hundred gold rubles that he had scrimped and saved.

On Motzaei Shabbos he was distressed to find that the money was gone. He asked his employer, who denied knowing anything about the pouch. The helper came before Rav Shlomo Kluger and cried and begged him for help. "I suspect my employer," he said, "for the cellar was locked and no one else has the keys."

Rav Shlomo summoned the wine merchant and asked about the missing money, and the merchant denied any knowledge of it. "You know that I trust you," said Rav Shlomo, "and I know that no Jew would commit such an evil deed as to steal a poor man's money." The wine merchant smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I must therefore conclude that a gentile broke into your cellar and stole the money, and I am sure you understand what that means." The merchant's smile vanished and a look of growing concern replaced it. "The only resolution now is for me to rule that all your wine is forbidden. I will summon the shamash of the bais din and issue a proclamation that your wine has been exposed and is no longer kosher, since the halachah forbids wine that has come in contact with gentiles."

The wine merchant grew pale, realizing that he stood to lose a fortune many times greater than the money in the pouch. "Well," he hemmed and hawed, "now that the Rav mentions it, I do seem to remember finding a pouch with some money." Rav Shlomo would not accept this until the merchant ran home and returned with the money. He gave it back to his helper, and the matter was settled.