The False Pious Man and the Purse Recovered by Elijah

"You shall not take the name [of the LORD your God in vain]" (Exodus 20:7) — that you should not conduct yourself as though you were pious when you are not pious. And there was an incident concerning a certain man who entered a city on the eve of the Sabbath and did not know anyone, and he had a purse full of small coins. He saw a certain convert sitting in the synagogue, wrapping himself in tzitzit, with tefillin bound upon his head. That man saw him and supposed that he was a great man, because he saw these commandments, and he deposited his purse with him. After the Sabbath he asked him for it. He said to him, "There never were any such things." He began to grieve and said, "Master of the worlds, it is revealed and known before You that I did not hand over my money to him as a deposit except that I saw upon him these commandments." At night Elijah the prophet came to him in a dream and said to him, "Tomorrow go to his wife and say to her, 'Give me my purse,' and if she says to you, 'By what sign?' say to her, 'By the sign that she and her husband ate leaven on the first night of Passover, and on the night of the Day of Atonement, swine's flesh.'" In the morning this man rose early before the wife of the robber and conveyed to her these signs, and she gave him the purse. The robber came to his wife and asked her for the purse. She said to him, "The owner of the purse came and took the purse, and such-and-such signs he conveyed to me." He said to her, "Since the matter has become known, let us return to our evil deeds." And such is the punishment of those who do thus.