Certain porters [negligently] broke one of Rabbah bar Bar Chanah
wine barrels. Thereupon he seized their cloaks;
They came and complained to Rav.
Rav ordered Rabbah bar Bar Chanah:
“Give them back their cloaks.”
– “Are you sure Is this is the law?” he enquired.
[Rav] replied : “Yes, [as it is written]
‘Follow the steps of good men’”
(Proverbs 2:20).
He gave them back their cloaks.
They said to [Rav]: “We are poor, and we have worked all day, and are hungry, and we have nothing.”
He said to him: “Go and give them their wages.”
“Is this the law?” he enquired.
He replied to him: “Yes, [as it says]
‘and keep the paths of the righteous’” (ibid, 20)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)