The tale is told of a certain Abu Golis, a pagan priest in the city of Damascus who later lived in Tiberias. He served an idol and prospered in its shadow, taking what he pleased of the temple offerings for his own use.
One day Abu Golis helped himself to money that had been placed in his hands for safekeeping — a sum entrusted to him as a man of religious standing. He spent it on his own comforts. Shortly afterward, he lost his sight. He woke up blind, and no remedy recovered his vision.
His friends, his fellow priests, nodded sagely. “The idol has punished him for his theft.”
Abu Golis, blind and shaken, made the long journey back to Damascus. He stood before the assembly of the priests and said:
“You are wrong. This idol has never punished me before, though I stole from him for years. But the God of Israel, who sees everything, has punished me now. It is not the idol who saw. It is God.”
And before the astonished gathering, his sight returned.
The story ends with a quiet detail. A great number of the listeners, moved by what they had just witnessed, became Jews.
The rabbis preserved the tale to say: the difference between a god and the God is not in which one you serve. It is in which one actually sees you.