Rabbi Pinhas ben Yair was a sage so scrupulous in his observance that the tradition says even his animals followed the law.
Thieves once stole his donkey from his stable, thinking they had gotten away with a good beast. They led her home and set down a heap of barley in front of her, plenty to eat. The donkey looked at the grain, turned her head, and walked away from the trough. They waited. They tried again. For three days and three nights she stood there and would not touch a single kernel.
The thieves grew nervous. A donkey that starves itself in front of full provender is either sick or enchanted. On the third day they led her back toward the town, reasoning that she would be more trouble than profit. When she came within sight of Rabbi Pinhas's house, the rabbi recognized her at once and came out to meet her.
"The poor beast," he said to his household. "Bring her the grain quickly." His students poured out the feed. The donkey ate.
When they asked him why she had starved for three days, Pinhas answered simply: "Because the thieves had not tithed their grain. The barley they gave her had not had the required portions set aside for the priest and the Levite. My donkey will not eat anything that has not been properly tithed."
The Exempla preserves the story because it teaches, through humor and amazement, that the holiness of a tzaddik's household runs deeper than his own conscience. A truly righteous home trains even the livestock. Pinhas did not miss his donkey only; his donkey missed the Torah.
(From The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster, 1924, no. 235, based on Chullin 7a.)