Before R. Akiba had become a learned man, he was a shepherd in the service of the rich Kalba Sabbu'a of Jerusalem. This rich man had a comely daughter, who noticed that the shepherd was very modest in all his actions. So she said to him: "If I betroth myself to you, will you go forth to study the Torah?"

He replied: "Yes, with all my heart."

And he was betrothed to her secretly so that the people knew nothing of it and, taking leave of his master, he gave up his work as a shepherd and went forth to study the Torah. When Kalba Sabbu'a learned that his daughter had become betrothed to the shepherd, he was very much vexed, for he could have given her in marriage to a more worthy man. So he sent his daughter out of his house and made a vow that she should not benefit from his property as long as he lived. The good man Akiba went forth to study and remained away twelve years. He then returned home and brought with him twelve thousand pupils. An old woman said to his wife: "You are like a widow, for your husband is living far away beyond the seas. You have not had much joy from him."

She replied: "If my husband would listen to me, he would go away again to continue his studies for another twelve years."

When Rabbi Akiba heard the words of his wife, he said to himself: "I see that she would be quite pleased if I went away again to study."

So he went away again and continued his studies at another school, where he remained twelve years.

At the end of that time, he came back and brought with him twelve thousand pupils more in addition to the other twelve thousand who had remained with him, making twenty-four thousand pupils.

When his wife heard that her husband was coming home, she went out to meet him, and the neighbors said to her: "We will lend you clothes so that you should not go to meet your husband in such shabby dress."

But she replied: " 'A righteous man knoweth the soul of his beast' " (Prov. 12.10).

She meant that her husband knew very well how she felt toward him even though she had no fine clothes on.

When she drew near, she fell at his feet and kissed them. His pupils wanted to push her aside. But R. Akiba said: "Do not push her away, for all my Torah and all your Torah is due to her. It was she who sent me forth to study the Torah."

And he told his pupils the whole story, how it had come to pass.

When her father Kalba Sabbu'a heard that a great rabbi had come into the town, he said to himself: "I will go to him and ask him to absolve me from my vow."

He did not know the rabbi was his son-in-law, but he felt compassion for his daughter. So he went to R. Akiba and told him that he had excluded his daughter from all benefit of his wealth, but was regretting it now. He had made the rash vow because it annoyed him very much to learn that she had allowed herself to become betrothed to a poor shepherd, who moreover was a very ignorant man.

Then R. Akiba said: "If you had known that he was a great scholar, would you have made the vow?"

He replied: "If he had known a single chapter or a single halakah (law), I would not have made that vow."

Then R. Akiba said: "I am the shepherd who tended your flock, and it is your daughter who made me go forth to study and return with so many pupils."

When Kalba Sabbu'a heard this, he fell at his feet and gave him half of his wealth.

The daughter of R. Akiba did the same thing to Ben Azzai as her mother had done to R. Akiba. She became betrothed to him on condition that he should go forth to study, as the popular proverb has it: "One sheep follows another;" as one sheep does so does the other; as the mother did, so did the daughter."