An evil spirit had entered the body of a young man. Thereupon he was adjured to reveal his name or that of his wife. When they mentioned his wife, he began to scream and said that his wife was an 'agunah, which means that she had no right to marry, for he had lost his life at sea and the sages could not give her permission to remarry; that he had requested the sages to give her permission to marry again and had given them many indications that he had been lost at sea, but they did not know where his home had been and therefore said that they could not give her the permission. He was crying because she had become a harlot by reason of the fact that she could not obtain permission to marry. The sages asked him why he could not rest in peace and what sins he had committed, to which he replied that he had committed adultery. When the sages asked him for the name of the woman with whom he had sinned, he refused to tell, as she has been dead a long time and it would do no one any good if he told.

"I am in the position," he said, "of the man about whom the sages say that he who is guilty of adultery should have the four kinds of capital punishment inflicted upon him. But I have not been punished that way."

And while they were talking, the young man suddenly rose up and stood on his feet.

The sages asked him: "Why have you risen up?"

And the youth replied: "Because a great sage is coming in."

And as they looked around, the sage entered, as the young man had said, and a company of young men followed him into the house to hear what was going on.

Then the evil spirit said: "Why have you come in here to see me? There are among you some who have done the same as I and will suffer a similar fate."

The youths became terribly frightened.

Then the evil spirit said: "Why are you so astounded? That youth yonder who is standing among you dressed in white clothes, has committed sodomy, which is as bad as adultery."

The youths became terrified and looked at one another. Thereupon the young man dressed in white clothes began screaming and said: "It is, alas, true, I am guilty."

And another youth also confessed the same crime.

Then one of the sages asked: "How did you know that they were guilty of such a sin?"

The evil spirit began to laugh and said: "It is written: 'And in the hand of every man is a seal,' meaning that every man has written on his hand what deeds he has done."

Then they asked him: "How can you see their hands, which are covered by their cloaks?"

The evil spirit again laughed and said: "I can see everywhere."

Then they asked him how he had come to be in the young man. And he replied that he had had no rest in the water, as the fish ate his body. Then his soul departed from him and entered a cow. The cow became insane, and the gentile owner sold it to a Jew who killed it, and as the youth was standing nearby, he flew straight into him.

Thereupon the sages exorcised him and he left the youth and flew away.