Rabbi Nachman of Breslov told over the following story.
There was a poor man who was a Shlemazel. No matter what he tried to do to earn a living he always messed up.
One day a fortune teller arrived in town. The poor man’s wife turned to her husband and said, “Look, you seem to have no mazel, go to the fortune teller and ask him if he can tell you where you can have some luck and be successful.”
The man was taken aback. He was a religious Jew and here his wife was trying to send him to some fortune teller, something completely forbidden by the Torah.
But his wife gave him no peace until he gave in and went.
The fortune teller took him into his room, did the act, tossed the cards, mumbled some witchcraft words under his breath and finally said, “I see you only have luck with one thing; stealing.”
The man was so shaken that he ran for his life.
He came home shaking. His wife asked him what the fortuneteller said but he kept avoiding the question. Finally, without much choice he told her what he had been told. His wife turned pale too.
But the financial situation at home never improved, in fact in only got worse. His wife tried to suggest maybe to try his luck but he wouldn’t hear of it.
Finally he gave in. He would steal a few rubles to buy a bread.
It was hard but he managed to steal a few rubles and bought three loaves of bread. He felt so guilty.
The bread didn’t last forever. After a few days he had no choice and he stole again. Bit by bit he got into his new ‘business’ and good luck of stealing until one day he was caught.
As the saying goes, a thief ends up on the gallows.
As he was brought to the gallows he saw the fortune teller, who represents the Yetzer Hara standing there and says, “you have no clue how much I invested in you to bring you here.
The message is simple. We all know how many times we say, we didn’t want to but in the end we fell in. We tried so hard but in the end we failed.
By Rabbi Dovid Caro
