When the government authorities came to the house of Rabbi Shneur Zalman (the Alter Rebbe), founder of Chabad Chasidut, to arrest him for the first time, he slipped out the back door and went deep in the fields, thus temporarily avoiding arrest. When the police did not find him at home, they left. A short while later, the Alter Rebbe returned home.

Reb Shmuel Munkes considered the situation and decided that he must speak with the Alter Rebbe. He knocked on the door of the Alter Rebbe's room and identified himself. The Alter Rebbe allowed him in and he asked Reb Shmuel if he was aware of the seriousness of the situation. Reb Shmuel began relating the following story:

Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Horodok had a Jewish wagon-driver whom he frequently employed. At one point, however, Rebbe Menachem Mendel did not travel for many months. The wagon-driver and his family suffered from this lack of income. Finally, the wagon driver sold his horse and carriage and bought a dairy cow with the money. With the proceeds from the sale of the milk, the former wagon-driver was able to eke out a living.

Time passed and Rebbe Menachem Mendel suddenly called the man. "I would like you to take me on a journey," he requested.

"I'm truly sorry, Rebbe," the man explained, "but I sold my horse and carriage and have bought a milking cow in order to provide for my family."

"Sell your cow and purchase a horse and carriage," Rebbe Menachem Mendel instructed him. "I need to set out as soon as possible."

Without any hesitation, the man did as the Rebbe requested. As they traveled, the Rebbe pressed the driver, "I am in a hurry, let us go faster."

The driver whipped the horses and the carriage sped onwards. Soon, they were going downhill very quickly, with the driver barely able to control the galloping horses. To his horror, he saw they were heading straight toward a palatial house at the bottom of the hill. His efforts to slow the horses were unsuccessful and the carriage went right through the yard and stopped only after it broke a window of the house.

The poritz who owned the mansion was enraged and stormed out toward the carriage, pointing his rifle at the driver. "You did this!" he shouted.

"No, no! Not me!" cried the terrified man. "It's not my fault, but his!" he said, pointing to Rebbe Menachem Mendel who was sitting behind him meditating, oblivious to the entire incident.

The poritz aimed his rifle at the Rebbe. As he was about to fire, he suddenly froze, unable to move a limb in his body. The other members of the household had also come running outside. When they saw the poritz paralyzed, they begged the Rebbe for forgiveness and asked him to remove his curse.

"If he will promise never to harm a Jew, he will be cured," answered the Rebbe.

The poritz indicated his consent by nodding his head slightly, and his ability to move was restored. Later, as they continued their journey, Rebbe Menachem Mendel turned to the driver and asked, "How could you do this! Why did you put the blame on me? The poritz almost killed me!"

"Rebbe," replied the driver in all sincerity and with utmost respect, "when you didn't travel for months, I accepted it. Then, when you instructed me to sell my cow, I immediately did so. Though my family was left without an income, I trusted that you were a Rebbe and had reasons for making the request. When you told me to go more quickly I did so, though no wagon-driver allows his horses to run downhill.

"So, when the poritz came out, I figured, if you are truly a Rebbe, he will not be able to harm you. And if you are not, then you would have deserved everything you would have gotten. For, how could you have left an entire family going hungry for bread?"

Concluding his story, Reb Shmuel said to the Alter Rebbe, "If you are a Rebbe, you have nothing to fear by being arrested. If you are not, what right did you have to deprive thousands of Chassidim from enjoying the pleasures of this world?!"

Reprinted from Early Chasidic Personalities by Rabbi Sholom Ber Avtzon