A wicked man lay on his deathbed. He had lived selfishly, hoarded his wealth, and never once given charity. The Angel of Death was approaching, and the man's ledger in heaven was catastrophically empty of good deeds. Not a single act of kindness. Not one coin given to the poor. Nothing to place on the scale of merit against a lifetime of greed.
In his final hours, the man was desperately hungry. "Bring me an egg," he groaned. A servant went to fetch it. But as the servant passed through the doorway, a poor man was standing there — starving, trembling, begging for a scrap of food.
The wicked man, barely conscious, heard the poor man's voice. Something stirred in him — perhaps guilt, perhaps a final flicker of humanity, perhaps simple recognition that he was about to face his Maker with nothing to show. "Give the egg to the poor man," he rasped. It was the first and only act of charity in his entire life.
He died moments later.
But in the World to Come, the man appeared to his son in a dream. "You cannot imagine what happened," the dead man said. "When they weighed my deeds, the scale of guilt was overwhelming — a lifetime of sin pressing down like mountains of iron. But then they placed a single egg on the scale of merit. And that egg — that one egg, given to a poor man in my last breath — was heavy enough to tip the balance. I was granted a place in Paradise."
The son was transformed. He became the most generous man in his community, giving charity constantly, never refusing a beggar. If a single egg could save a wicked man's soul, what could a lifetime of giving accomplish?