Kiddushin 31 records the story of a Nochri named Dama ben Nesinah as an example of the extent to which one is obligated to honor his parents. Dama's father was in possession of a precious stone, the Yashfeh, for which the treasurers of the Beis haMikdash offered him a huge sum of money. (The stone was needed to complete the Eifod, the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol.) The key to the box in which the jewel was kept was under the pillow of Dama's sleeping father. Dama refused to disturb his father's sleep and he declined the treasurers' offer. The following year, Dama's cow gave birth to a red heifer which the treasurers of the Beis haMikdash offered to buy from him. He told them, "I know that you are willing to pay an enormous amount for this heifer. However, I ask only for the money which I declined in last year's gem transaction."
The Gemara (Berachos 7b) teaches that a person's name reflects his destiny. The Gemara commonly uses for "money" is "Damim." Sleep is expressed by the word "Damich" in the Yerushalmi's version of the story. The word for "red," as in "red heifer," is "Adumah." All three words share the root letters of the word "Dama." Moreover, the Chachamim teach that "there is nothing that is not hinted to somewhere in the Torah" (see Taanis 9a, Zohar 3:221). The stone which Dama had was the Yashfeh. Rabeinu Bachye (Shemos 28:15) writes that this stone could control excess bleeding ("Dam"), another parallel between Dama's name and the stone.
