This is a story I ran into that takes place in 17th century Poland. The wealthest Jew in Krakow was known to be a miser. Many, many people would come crying to him with sad stories and asking for money. He would always sit and listen to them as if they might be the ones he would decide to break down and help. The end result would always be the same though, as soon as they ask for money he would get up and tell them they had to leave. So when the miser died, all the townspeople refused to bury him because he was thought to be so stingy. Then Friday came along and the local Rabbi answered a knock at his door. There stood one of the townspeople explaining how every Friday he always got an unmarked envelope in the mail with money in it to buy food for Shabbat. This week there was no envelope for the first time in years. The Rabbi gave him a little money and sent him on his way. Later on there was a second knock and there stood a second person with another story of how he had received help by way of money in an anonymous envelope.

This went on and on until the Rabbi figured out exactly who had secretly been supporting the entire town for years. The miser had never told anyone about his giving because he didn’t want anyone to feel like they owed him. The Rabbi immediately announced the town was going to have a grand funeral for the miser. The Rabbi was so touched by what this man had done for so many people that he instructed his family as such: “when I die, bury my body right next to the body of the Miser of Krakow”. Thus we see that in this life that man never got all the glorious “thank-yous” and rewards for all he did, but he knew his reward was going to be much greater than man could give him. So let’s not be so concerned about who knows what good deed we did, YHVH is “always” watching and His reward is the one we should be concerned with!