Rabbi Abahu said in the name of Rabbi Eliezer: We must be grateful to the deceivers among them, as were it not for the deceivers among them, when one of them would demand [charity] from a person and he would refuse him, he would be punishable by death, as it is stated: “He will cry out to the Lord against you [and it will be a sin for you]” (Deuteronomy 15:9). And it is written: “The soul that sins, it will die” (Ezekiel 18:20).
Rabbi Yoḥanan and Reish Lakish descended to bathe in a certain bathhouse in Tiberias. A certain poor person encountered them. He said to them: ‘Gain through me.’27Give me charity. They said to him: ‘When we emerge we will gain through you.’
They emerged and found him dead. They said: ‘Since we did not tend to him in his lifetime, we will tend to him in his death.’ When they were washing him, they found a purse with six hundred dinars hanging around his neck. They said: ‘Blessed is He who chose the Sages and their words. Did Rabbi Abahu not say in the name of Rabbi Elazar: We must be grateful to the deceivers…’