Once upon a time there lived a heathen king and a queen who were both black, and the queen bore a child which was quite white. So the king sent for Rabbi Akiba and said to him: "I and my wife are both black and yet she has born a child which is white. I will put the queen to death, for she must have been unfaithful to me with a white man."

Then R. Akiba said: "Do not be in a hurry and let me ask you a question. Are the walls of your palace and the pictures painted on them white or black?"

The king replied: "They are white."

Then R. Akiba said: "Then your child has to be white, also. The white pictures made an impression upon your wife and therefore your child is white, for the child resembles the object to which the wife directs her attention, as we find in the story

of Jacob. He put white and black rods by the troughs from which the sheep drank. They became frightened and bore speckled sheep."

When the king heard this, he wondered at R. Akiba's wisdom.

Therefore every woman should have pious thoughts and she will have pious children in accordance with her thoughts.