One time the Rebbe Rashab (Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the fourth Chabad Rebbe whose yartzeit is 2 Nisan) traveled to Petersburg by train. When he reached his destination and claimed his luggage from the baggage car, one suitcase was missing. The station was combed from top to bottom but no one could find it. The Rebbe was quite upset, as it contained several important books.
Several days later the Rebbe was visited by a young man named Avraham Eliyahu Gurary. Avraham Eliyahu had recently married a woman with a large dowry of ten thousand rubles; the new husband had promptly started a business and lost almost all of it. With only one thousand rubles remaining, his domestic life was beginning to suffer. When he heard that the Rebbe was visiting Petersburg, he rushed to seek his advice.
As soon as he entered the Rebbe's room, before he could even open his mouth, the Rebbe Rashab called out, "Aha! Avraham Eliyahu will bring me my suitcase from the train station!" The Rebbe handed him the baggage slip and sent him on his way. Avraham Eliyahu was unaware that countless others had already tried to locate the suitcase and had failed.
At that hour the station was quiet. Avraham Eliyahu was very thirsty, and decided to buy a drink from the refreshment stand. Standing and waiting for the drink, he absentmindedly took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and was about to light one when he noticed someone eyeing him intently.
"Do you smoke?" Avraham Eliyahu asked the stranger.
"Yes," the gentile replied, whereupon the Chasid gave him a cigarette. When the man asked what he was doing in the station at such an odd hour, Avraham Eliyahu replied that he had come to retrieve a suitcase for Rabbi Schneersohn. "What a coincidence!" the man exclaimed. "I am the manager of the baggage warehouse. Let me see your claim slip."
Sure enough, after an extensive search he located the Rebbe's valise in a corner of the warehouse, hidden by a large crate. The Chasid thanked the manager profusely and returned to the Rebbe Rashab, suitcase in hand. The Rebbe was delighted to be reunited with his precious books. "I am now in your debt," he said.
Avraham Eliyahu then poured out his heart and told the Rebbe his troubles. The Rebbe advised him to take the remaining one thousand rubles and go to the city of Koritz. "G-d Almighty will provide you with a livelihood there. Just make sure you take food along for the trip." he added cryptically.
Avrahom Eliyahu returned home, and his wife prepared a large basket of baked goods so he would have what to eat.
It was a hot summer day when Avraham Eliyahu arrived in Koritz, and he decided to take a dip in the Black Sea. When he came out of the water and sat on the shore, he noticed another Jew eyeing his piece of cake. Avraham Eliyahu offered the man a sample of his wife's cooking, and the two began to converse. In his usual candid manner, he mentioned the thousand rubles he was now looking to invest.
"Maybe I can help you," the man replied. "Meet me here tomorrow. I'll bring a friend along. Just make sure to bring more of that delicious cake."
The next day they met at the appointed spot. The third man told Avraham Eliyahu that having considered his situation, he had decided to sell him a freight load of cigarette paper for one thousand rubles. Avraham Eliyahu gave the man the money and went to the town of Kremenchug, then a center for the production of cigarettes, where the cargo was located. One of the factories he visited while trying to negotiate a deal was owned by the Chasid Reb Tzvi Gurary, who was interested in buying up the entire carload.
The factory owner was willing to pay up to four thousand rubles for the batch of papers, but Avraham Eliyahu insisted that his price was ten thousand, and went off to find another customer.
When Tzvi Gurary learned how Avraham Eliyahu had come to purchase the cigarette paper (for in his naivet, he had told him the entire story!), he decided to travel to Koritz to see if there was another shipment available for the low price of one thousand rubles. But cigarette paper was then in short supply. Avraham Eliyahu had bought the very last shipment.
Immediately, Tzvi Gurary dispatched a telegram to Avraham Eliyahu begging him not to sell the shipment to anyone else. He returned to Kremenchug and paid Avraham Eliyahu the entire ten thousand rubles for the carload. Avraham Eliyahu's monetary problems were over. Grateful for the Rebbe's blessing having materialized, he decided to return to him for further instructions on how to succeed in the world of business.
"But Avraham Eliyahu!" said the Rebbe this time, "My debt to you is already repaid!"
