A disciple of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai had left the academy for business and had come back years later a wealthy man. When he walked into the beit midrash in his fine clothes, the other disciples — those who had stayed with their master through poverty and study — began to grumble. Perhaps they had made the wrong choice. Perhaps Torah was a poor bargain after all.
Rabbi Yochanan heard the mutter. He said nothing at first. Then he led the whole group out into the valley near Meron, and by a miracle — or by a vision he granted them — he filled the entire valley to its rim with gold. Ingots and coins and bars piled up to the lip of the ridge like grain at harvest.
He turned to his disciples. "Whoever wishes," he said quietly, "may now take from here as much as he likes. But remember: whatever you take from this valley today will be subtracted from your share in the World to Come. Each one of you has a portion reserved for you there, already promised. Choose now. Take gold now and lose that portion, or leave the gold and receive it all in the next world."
The disciples looked at the gold, and they looked at their teacher, and they did not bend down to scoop.
The Exempla preserves the lesson in its sharpest form. Wealth is not forbidden in Judaism, and a former student who grew rich is not condemned. But the sages wanted their disciples to understand that the scholar who stays poor is not cheated — he has simply invested in a different account, one that accrues in an economy gold cannot buy into.
(From The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster, 1924, no. 151.)