A king asked R. Joshua ben Hananyah whether God were just since he had created some blind and lame. R. Joshua replied, “These are marked men, because they are wicked,” and he proved it. He gave 1000 dinars to a blind man in the presence of two witnesses of the king. He asked the man to take care of the money, for the king had ordered him to be killed and he could therefore keep it, but should he by any chance be saved he would ask for it back.
After a time he came again to the blind man who denied that he had ever received anything. He was brought before the king; the two witnesses testified but he still denied it. The king ordered him to be hanged. On the way to the gallows a man came and whispered into his ear that he had seen the condemned man's wife diverting herself with a young man and telling him to wait until her husband had been hanged, when they would marry and spend the 1000 dinars.
When he heard it, he confessed to have taken the dinars and returned them to R. Joshua. The king acknowledged the truth of the latter's statement.