The Lottery

A poor man once approached an individual asking if he can buy a lottery ticket from him. For every lottery ticket that this poor man would sell, he would receive a percentage in profits. Although this man was not interested in purchasing a lottery ticket, he bought it just to give this poor man a livelihood. Following the transaction, the man put away his lottery ticket and forgot about the incident. The following week, the lottery was drawn in Eretz Yisrael for millions of shekalim. After a few days, no winner had come forth to claim the big win. Everyone was talking about this mysterious lottery drawing with no winner.

Soon after, this man who had bought the ticket bumped into the poor man once again. The poor man shared the news that nobody had claimed their prize. It was only then that the man retrieved the ticket realizing that he was the mystery winner. The man collected major prize and brought it to a bank teller. However, the teller explained that the amount of money was too large to deposit. After seeing the manager of the bank, it was decided that he would have to meet the president of the bank. In the end, this man had spent the entire day in meetings with financial advisors.

When he returned home, there were lots of reporters and neighbors who began pestering him. He could no longer reach his own house door! Late that night once he finally managed to get inside, he found his son asleep at the table waiting to learn with his father for their nightly Torah learning session. They never missed a day of learning, until that day when he claimed his prize money. The man felt terrible.

The next day, this man marched into a yeshivah and told the Rosh HaYeshiva that the money was going to be split up. He decided that he would take just ten-percent for himself and donate the other ninety-percent to the yeshivah!

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