Yosef Who Honored the Sabbath and the Pearl Inside the Fish

There was a man called Yosef-who-honors-the-Sabbath. A certain gentile in his neighborhood had very abundant property. The astrologers told him, "All your property Yosef-who-honors-the-Sabbath will consume." He went and sold all his property and bought a pearl with the proceeds and set it in his turban. As he was crossing on a ferry, the wind blew off his turban and cast it into the sea, and a fish swallowed it. The fish was caught and brought up toward evening on the eve of the Sabbath. They said, "Who will buy it now?" They were told, "Go take it to Yosef-who-honors-the-Sabbath, who is accustomed to buy." They brought it to him; he bought it, cut it open, and found the pearl inside, which he sold for thirteen vessels of golden dinars. A certain elder met him and said, "Whoever lends to the Sabbath, the Sabbath repays him." Rabbi Yishmael son of Rabbi Yosi asked Rabbi: "The people of Babylonia, by what merit do they grow rich?" He said to him, "By the merit of Torah." "And the people of the Land of Israel?" "By the merit of tithes." "And those outside the Land?" "By the merit of Sabbaths and festivals." Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said: One time a man invited me in Laodicea and brought before us a table borne on sixteen poles, and on it was all that was created in the six days of creation, and a child sat in its midst and proclaimed, "The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof" (Psalms 24:1). And why all this? So that the householder's mind should not grow haughty over it. I said to him, "My son, how did you merit all this honor?" He said to me, "I was a butcher, and every fine animal I saw during the week I set aside for the Sabbath." And I said to him, "Blessed is the Omnipresent who granted you this." Rabbi Tanchuma said: It happened in Rome on the eve of the great fast that there was a certain tailor who went to buy himself a fish, and he and the governor's servant were left bidding over it. This one raised the price and that one raised the price until it reached twelve dinars. The tailor took it. At the governor's table they said, "What is this, that no fish came to your table?" He said, "My lord, what should I conceal from you? There is a certain Jewish tailor who took it for twelve dinars." He sent for him, and he came before him, and he said, "How could you, a Jewish tailor, eat a fish for twelve dinars?" He said to him, "My lord, we have one day on which all the sins we commit the whole year are atoned for us, and when it comes, should we not honor it?" He said, "Since you have brought proof for your words, let him go."