Many guests filled the courtyard of the small hotel in the town. There was a spirit of alertness and excitement in the air. The owner of the hotel moved energetically between the rooms, struggling to cope with the heavy load that had befallen his small hostel. It is not every day that the famous Rebbe, Rabbi David of Tolna, comes to stay at his residence.
Suddenly it became clear to the hotel owner that there was no room available enough for the Rebbe. The room he thought to make available to the Rebbe was given to a Jewish merchant. With no other choice, he knocked on the door and asked the merchant to clear the room for the Rebbe and move to another room.
The merchant willingly agreed. In his heart, he was happy for the opportunity to get to know the renowned tzaddik up close. He had never been in contact with Hasidim in his life, and he was curious to get to know their ways. He moved his belongings to the room given to him, and stood outside, watching the crowds of Jews who flocked to the hostel, expecting to see the Rebbe and receive a blessing from him.
Rabbi David came to the place and the owner of the hotel escorted him to his room and shut himself up with him for a few minutes. He then went out and went to talk to his wife, who was sitting in the hotel office. The merchant, who was standing nearby, witnessed an argument between the couple.
It turned out that when the owner of the hotel asked for the blessing of the tzaddik, Rabbi David demanded that he give him a huge sum for charitable purposes. The amount demanded by the Rebbe was two hundred rubles – no less! The wife claimed: "After all, these are all our savings, which we saved for rainy times!" The husband said: "If the Rebbe asks us to do so, we must gladly give him the money."
A bewilderment mixed with anger began to bubble through the merchant's heart as he continued to listen to the argument between the hotel owner and his wife. A harsh sense of injustice filled him. Could it be?! He thought, in a rising rage, that this is a real oppression!
Eventually, after arguments and deliberations, the woman accepted her husband's position, and the two decided to hand over all their money to the Rebbe. The merchant, who had witnessed all this while standing on the sidelines, was not aware of his frustration. For a moment he thought of approaching them and pointing them out of their mistake; to warn them that they were about to lose all their money, but he restrained himself and refrained from intervening in their affairs.
Late at night, the large crowd began to disperse. The merchant, who was standing contemplatively by the window of his room, suddenly noticed two figures coming out into the courtyard of the hotel. Benkel recognized the Rebbe and his servant, and decided to listen to what they had to say.
To his surprise, he discovered that the trip to the compound was no less than an entrepreneurial tour: the Rebbe pointed to different areas in the vast area, and assigned each and every one of them a purpose: "Here you can build a two-story house with many rooms. There, the land is suitable for horse stables," and more.
The tour of the courtyard took a long time, during which the Rebbe spoke as an investor with a great deal of money in his pocket. The two then returned to the hotel, and a short time later they boarded the wagon and returned to Tolna.
The merchant remained in his room, puzzled and reluctant about the Rebbe's manners and strange actions. If until now he had treated the Chassidim and their rabbis with a certain indifference, now he has become a harsh critic.
