A band of robbers once stopped a group of travelers and demanded to know who they were. Disciples of Rabbi Akiva, the travelers answered. The robbers lowered their weapons and said, Blessed is Rabbi Akiva and his disciples, for no man can ever do them harm. The students passed through unhurt, carried by the reputation of their master.
A different story went the other way. Rabbi Menasi was traveling to Thurtha in Babylonia, when thieves ambushed him and asked where he was headed. To Pumbeditha, he answered. But when he reached Thurtha he stopped and went no farther. The thieves, realizing they had been misled, cursed him. You are a disciple of Yehuda the deceiver!
The Rabbi seized on the insult. Oh, you know my teacher, do you? Then in the name of God, every one of you is cherem, put under a ban. For twenty-two years after that day, the thieves continued their robberies, but every single attempt at violence collapsed. They bungled every ambush. They caught no caravan. They ruined no life.
Eventually all of them except one came to the Rabbi to beg pardon, and he forgave them freely. The one who did not come was a weaver. He kept his pride. He was later devoured by a lion. Out of this tale, preserved in Harris's 1901 Hebraic Literature, came two proverbs. If a weaver does not humble himself, he shortens his life. And, Come and see the difference between the thieves of Babylon and the banditti of the land of Israel. The land's robbers, when cursed, repented. The foreign robbers, when cursed, hardened, and one of them met a lion.