Sefer Maamar Mordechai quotes Rav Mordechai Chaim of Slonim zy”a as relating that Rav Dovid of Anipoli zy”a was a Sofer Stam. Once, Rav Zushe and Rav Elimelech ordered tefillin from him, and he asked them for a payment of 50 gold coins, which was a fortune of money. When they put together the money, they went together to pick up the parshios. On the way, they stopped at an inn, where the money was stolen. However, they decided to continue on their way anyway.
When they arrived at Rav Dovid’s home, he told them that their parshios were ready. They asked him why they were so expensive, and he said, “Let me show you something!” He took down a pair of parshios from his shelf and showed them one. They were surprised to see the image of a cow protruding from amongst the words. He showed them the other one, and they could see a protruding image of a horse and wagon.
Rav Dovid explained, “When I write tefillin, I am careful to make sure that no outside thoughts enter my mind. However, when I wrote this parshah, I was distracted by the sound of a wagon passing by my house. You can see that it affected the parshios. It sometimes takes me numerous tries before I can produce tefillin made with no outside thoughts entering my mind at all. That’s why I charge so much.”
The brothers then related how their money had been stolen and Rav Dovid said, “I don’t need your money. Take them as a gift.”
