There was a man careful about tzitzit but lax in other matters. When he heard about a harlot that took 400 golden dinars as her fee, he sent her the money and came to her house. She had six silver beds and one of gold, and she proceeded to the top one, naked. He wanted to follow her, but his tzitzit started pelting him on the face.
He went back down, and she descended to him. “What's wrong with me?” - she asked. He answered, “I never saw a more beautiful woman than you. But our God gave us the commandment of tzitzit and mentioned His name there twice, one for reward and one for punishment.”
She asked his name and his teacher's name. Then she paid one third of all her money to the nobles, as bribes, and as an excuse for not having them as clients anymore. Another third she gave to the poor, to protect her on the way, and the rest she took, together with her bedding, and came to the man's teacher, Rabbi Chiya, to convert. “Maybe you want to marry one of my students,” - said Rabbi Chiya, and then I cannot convert you. However, she explained the story, and he converted her. Then he said, “Now you can go and marry the student who came to your home.” She did so, and that bedding that she spread illicitly she now arranged in the allowed way.
“If that is the reward in this world, then I don't even know how great it will be in the next one,” - concludes Rabbi Nathan.
Art: Felix Edouard Vallotton - Interior, Bedroom With Two Figures
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