A man once overheard his wife rebuking her daughter for leading a loose life, and he heard

her say: "Do not practice prostitution publicly. Do as I have done. I lived a loose life and have

had ten children, of which nine were bastards, whom I had with other men, and only one was

the son of my husband. But my husband knew nothing of it, as I carried on my amours secretly.

I advise you to do the same."

When the poor man heard all that his wife had said, he was very much grieved, and yet he did not dare to show knowledge of the fact that his wife was an adulterous woman. He grieved over it so much that he fell ill and was about to die. He left a will, saying: "I bequeath all my property to one only of my children."

But he did not say which one of his sons was to be his heir. And so he died.

After his death each one of the children claimed the whole property for himself, and they came before R. Banaah, who was the head of the college at that time, and asked him to decide which of the sons was to be the heir.

The rabbi said: "It is a very difficult matter and I cannot fathom it, nor am I a prophet that I should know which of the sons your father had in mind. But I will give you an advice. Go together to your father's grave, and each take a stone in his hand and knock with it upon your father's grave and say: 'Dear father, tell us which is your real son who is to be your sole heir'."

The rabbi gave them this advice, for he wanted to put them to the test to see whether they would perpetrate such insolence against their father, for thereby he would be able to identify the real heir. The one who would refuse to follow his advice would be the true son.

And so it came to pass. They all went to the father's grave with stones in their hands, except one who refused to go. And he said to them: "What do you mean by putting such disgrace upon our dead father? I would not go to the grave even if I knew that I would lose every penny of my father's property."

The rabbi concluded that he was the real son, and said: "This one shall inherit the whole property. He is the one whom your father had in mind."

It was through his wisdom that the rabbi was able to discover who the real son was. For a real child cannot bear to inflict so great a disgrace upon his father. But bastard children care nothing and are ready to inflict shame upon one even if he is in the grave.