A drought had settled on the land. The sages, running out of options, remembered the legend that Abba Hilkiah — the grandson of the famous rainmaker Honi ha-Me'aggel — had inherited his grandfather's gift. They sent a delegation to him to beg him to pray.
They found him digging in a field. They greeted him. He did not reply. He did not even look up. The sages were insulted but they followed him home in silence.
They watched him pick up his faggots of wood and carry them on one shoulder, while he carried his mantle on the other. They watched him put on his shoes only when crossing a river, and lift his clothes when walking through thorns. When he reached his house, his wife came out to greet him, beautifully dressed. He went inside, sat down, and did not invite the sages to share the meal. Over dinner, he gave one piece of bread to his older son and two pieces to his younger son.
After the meal, he and his wife went up to the roof together and stood in different corners to pray for rain. A cloud appeared first in the corner where the wife was praying. Rain fell as they came down.
Only then did Abba Hilkiah ask the sages their errand. They told him. He said, "It is no longer needed." They said, "We know it was through your merit that the rain came." And they asked him to explain his strange behavior.
He answered each action in turn. He had not replied to their greeting because he was a hired worker — time was not his to give. He had carried the faggots on his bare shoulder, not on his mantle, because the mantle was lent and had to be returned unstained. He put on his shoes when crossing the river because he could not see what lay at the bottom, but not when walking through thorns, because scratches heal while torn clothes do not. His wife had dressed beautifully to meet him so that his eyes would not wander to another woman. He had not invited them to the meal because there had not been enough food, and it would have been wrong to accept their thanks for a hospitality he could not actually extend. He gave the elder son one piece of bread because the boy was home all day and could take what he needed, while the younger son was all day at school and came home hungry.
And the rain, he said, had gathered on his wife's side first because a woman in the house feeds the poor directly, while a man can only give money for food. Her merit was greater.
Gaster's Exempla (no. 421, 1924) preserves this story because it is really about how to see a saint. A saint does not look like what you expect. Sometimes he looks like a hired hand who will not even greet a visiting delegation, because every second belongs to the employer who is paying for his time.