Once upon a time there lived a rich man, who had a son. He brought him to R. Judah the Pious to study under him, and begged the pious man to take special care of the young lad. The pious man said to him: "Bring the lad to me, for I wish to see him first." The rich man brought the lad to the pious man who, as soon as he saw him, said: "I will not take your son whether you pay much or little. Take your boy home and do not bring him back for a whole year. When the year has passed bring him to me again and I will study the Torah with him and do my best for him." The rich man said: "Dear rabbi, why will you not take my son this year?" The pious man did not reply. But the rich man continued asking until the pious man allowed himself to be persuaded. He took the rich man into a chamber and said to him: "I will tell you the reason why I refuse to take your son this year. In the course of this year, there will be a day when your son will have an evil moment and will conceive a desire to be converted to Christianity. Therefore if you wish to save your son from apostacy, keep him in your house a whole year until that day has passed, and then bring him to me. I know for certain that I can make a great scholar out of him and a pious Jew to boot." Then the rich man said: "Dear Rabbi, can't you advise me how I can prevent that misfortune?" The pious man replied: "I will advise you. Build an underground chamber for your son, deep in the ground and far from your house and the high road, so that he can hear and see nothing that is going on outside, and get the young man a teacher to study with him. Put the two together in the vault and lock them in so that they cannot get out, and send them food and drink. Observe carefully what I am telling you until the evil day has passed, and then you may let him go wherever he likes."

The rich man departed very sad, as one can well imagine, took his son home and followed ,the instructions of the Hasid to the letter. He built an underground chamber, employed a teacher for his son, put them both in the vault and sent them food and drink. He also hired a servant to attend them and made a strong lock in the door so that the son could not get out. Thus the teacher and the young lad remained together until the day arrived which the pious man had foretold. On that day the rabbi began his lessons with the lad as usual. The lad said: "I do not want to study to-day, and I regret very much that I allowed myself to be persuaded to come into this chamber and that I have studied so much." And he acted with great impertinence and spoke many strange words, which cannot be recounted here. The teacher said: "My dear son, what has come over you that you act this day as you have never acted before?" The young lad replied with great effrontery: "I want to go away and become a Christian." When the teacher heard these strange words from the lad, he refused to remain with him any longer and contrived to get out of the vault and locked the door behind him.

The boy began to cry and tried to get out of the chamber into the street, and uttered blasphemous words against the Lord, blessed be His holy name for ever and ever, and denied God and continued saying: "Let me out, for I want to join the Church." And the teacher as well as the father and mother stood outside the chamber and heard the impudent words of the young man. This lasted for a whole hour. Finally, the father, mother and teacher entered the chamber and asked the lad why he was acting so strangely and whether he was in want of anything. But the lad would not listen to anything they said, but cried out all the while: "Bring the priest, for I want to join the Church. If I were outside, no one could keep me back. I would kill everyone who came near me and tried to prevent me from joining the Church." And he acted like a madman. When the father and mother saw that there was no improvement in the lad and that he tried to make his way out by force, they thrust him back into the vault, tied him hand and foot and let him lie there the whole day and the whole night, while they went out of the vault and locked the door.

The next morning, the father went into the vault again and found the young man lying quite still. Then the lad asked his father to loosen the bands, saying they need not have any further anxiety about him, for the evil day had passed. He wept bitterly because of what he had done, and desired to repent and ask God's forgiveness. And he said to his father: "Take me to R. Judah, the Pious." For he was again eager to study. So they brought him to R. Judah, the Pious, where he did great penance, as beseems a pious Jew, and studied day and night and became a great scholar in the Law. And his friends rejoiced in him greatly. May God grant us joy, too.