The Laughable Stories Collected by Mar Gregory John

174
THE LAUGHABLE STORIES OF BAR-HEBR^US.
that some days after this the physician himself needed
to be bled, and he told his disciple to open a vein;
and the disciple went and unconsciously took that same
scalpel and opened his master s vein, and thus he died
by the same means as those by which he had killed
the soldier.
DCLXXIV. It is said that once on a time a certain
blind man was on board a ship, together with seventy
souls, and that the ship having been wrecked they
were all drowned except the blind man who saved
himself by means of a spar; yet when he came on shore
he fell sick and died.
DCLXXV. Once on a time a certain wealthy man
who had become absolutely poor, went to another rich
man who was his friend, and when he had shewn him
his condition his friend brought out a bag containing
three hundred dinars^ and he swore an oath that be-
sides these he had nothing else left. And when his
friend had taken the bag and had gone to his house,
another of his friends came to him and shewed him
that he had not enough money for a day's expenses;
and he had compassion upon him and brought forth
the bag, saying, "I also have nothing, but one of my
''friends gave me this bag. Do thou, however, take it,
"and God will provide for me." And when the friend had
taken the bag and gone to his house, before he opened
it, there came unto him the man unto whom the bag
had belonged originally, and asked him for some help,
and the friend said within himself, "I apprehend that
"this bag hath not fallen to my lot;" so he took it out
and gave it to the man. And when h6 saw it he re-
cognized that it was his own bag and he asked the
friend concerning the matter, and the friend told him