Once upon a time R. Samuel, the Pious, went forth to study at a yeshibah. When he was in the open country, three other Jews joined him and desired to travel the same way that he was going. They went along together until they came to a forest through which they had to pass.

They went astray and walked the whole day without knowing where they were. As night approached, the pious man looked hither and thither to see if he could find a house. At last he saw one standing in the midst of the forest and, calling to his companions, said to them: "My dear friends, do not worry, for I have espied a house yonder. But by your life, beware that you do not go in, for I will go in first and see what kind of people live there."

With these words he left his companions and went into the house. When he entered the house, he saw a number of pots standing around the hearth, but there was no one in the house, so he wanted to return to call his companions. But as he was leaving the house, he met a very old man with a snow white beard. The old man greeted him and he returned the greeting.

Then the old man said: "Stay with me over night, I will give you meat and drink."

The pious man replied: "If I stay with you, where will my companions stay, who are wandering in the forest?"

The old man said: "As for your companions who are wandering in the forest, you might very well let them go, for they deserve to be eaten up by wild beasts, for they are wicked people, bad in all their ways. Nevertheless, they shall benefit by your merit. Bid them come in to eat and drink, but be warned not to continue your journey in their company, lest some evil happen to you through them."

The pious man called his companions and invited them in. They spent the evening there, eating and drinking and making merry. After the meal, the old man took the pious man into a chamber and told him that he was the Prophet Jeremiah, and showed him many books which he had written. They consisted of lamentations, which he had composed in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem.

"Every clay," he said, "I go into this wild forest and weep for the destruction of Jerusalem."

In the morning he took leave of the old man, who blessed him and showed him the right path through the forest. Otherwise they would have had to wander about for a long time in the forest, for it was very large and full of robbers and wild beasts. When they left the old man, the pious man told his companions what the old man had said, namely that they were wicked people and that it was through his merit that they had been given shelter and food in the old man's house. Otherwise the wild beasts would have devoured them because of their evil deeds.

When they heard these words and found that their sins had become known, they wept before the pious man and asked him to impose a penance upon them for their sins, for they felt remorse for the evil deeds which they had committed and desired to do penance. So he imposed a penance upon them and said to them: "If you will perform properly the penance which I will impose upon you, it will go well with you and I have no doubt that you will enter paradise and have a share in the world to come. But if you will not perform properly the penance which I impose upon you, you will not live to the end of the year and you will have a miserable death."

They replied: "Master, whatever penance you impose upon us we will do with our whole heart, nay we will do more rather than less."

Thus they went together until they reached the town whither he was going to study the Torah.

When they carne to the town, they went into the synagogue and, standing in front of the Ark, they said to the assembled people: "Listen, friends, we are sinners and transgressors of the law. (And they confessed publicly all the sins which they had committed.) We have accepted the penance imposed upon us by this pious man, which we will carry out exactly as it was imposed upon us."

And they did so.

One night a voice came to the pious man, saying: "Know that the Lord, blessed be He, has accepted the penance of the three men and they are assured of the bliss of the world to come."

Next morning, the pious man went to the synagogue and preached on the subject that no man should despair of himself and say: "I have committed so many sins that I cannot expiate them. I will not do penitence, for it will be of no avail." Rather, let everyone take example from these three men, who had been very great sinners and had deserved to be eaten up by the wild beasts, as the old man had said, but as they properly fulfilled the penance which I had imposed upon them, they have been promised the bliss of the world to come, as if they had never sinned. Nay, they have become even more meritorious, for our sages tell us that even the most pious cannot occupy the place which is reserved for the penitent. And the reason is because a pious man has always lived a good and pure life, he has never had an evil thought nor done an evil deed. But the wicked, who have committed sins and then do penance, have to subdue their evil inclinations in order not to repeat the sin which they have done formerly.

The pious man continued his studies three years and then returned home in peace.