The Bible says, "Give Me tithe in order that you may be able to give more tithes" (Deut. 14.22). This means that the more tithes a person gives the richer he becomes.

Once upon a time, there lived a man who was very wealthy. All his wealth was the result of the yield of a field which brought him a yearly income of a thousand measures of corn, of which he gave every year one hundred as tithe to the priest. And because he was so careful to give his tithe, the Lord caused his field to yield a thousand measures.

When the time of his death drew near, he called his son, for he had only one son, and said to him, "My dear son, I am sick and may die. I leave you this field, which yields a harvest of one thousand measures of corn every year. Take care, my dear son, and give your tithe regularly. Be sure to give every year a hundred measures as tithe and the Lord will prosper the field for you as he has done for me."

After these words the good man died.

The field yielded the son in that year the same amount of one thousand measures of corn as it had yielded for his father, and he gave one hundred measures as tithe just as his father had done before. The second year he again gave one hundred measures of corn. When he saw that the tithe which he had given away every year was so heavy, he bethought himself and said, "Next year I will not give so much, I will keep the tithe for myself," and he kept his word.

The third year the yield of the field was only one hundred measures. And the man grieved very much over it and was very sorely troubled.

When his relatives saw that he grieved so much over the fact that his field brought him no more than one hundred measures, they came to him, dressed in fine garments and full of joy.

When he saw them all dressed in beautiful white garments, he said to them: "I believe that you take pleasure in seeing my sad plight."

They replied, "We are very much grieved over your sad plight and we grieve over the fact that you have not given the proper tithe as your father commanded you on his deathbed. Come, we will explain the matter to you. When you first came into possession of the field, you were the owner, and the Lord was the priest. And when you divided the one hundred measures among His poor, you gave them to the priest, i.e. to God, to whom they were due, but now that you have refused to give the tithe, you have become the priest and the Lord the owner. He has, therefore, given you one hundred measures of corn and kept nine hundred for Himself."

When the man heard this, he admitted that he was wrong.

This is what our sages mean when they say that if a man withholds the tithe and does not pay it up fully, the time will come when he will have one tenth of what he had before. Therefore, dear friends, give your tithe properly and the Lord will protect you also.