The Lost Chickens

In the time of the Mishna, in Eretz Yisroel, there was a man walking down the street. This man was holding a big, big bag of brown chickens.

All the chickens in the man’s bag were tied together with red string on their feet. Of course, these chickens were not frozen! They were live chickens that the man must have been taking to the marketplace.

The man was walking for awhile, and soon he got very hungry and tired. He decided, “Let me sit down right here and rest for awhile. Later, I will look for a place to buy food.”

So, the man put down his bag of chicken. He sat down on a bench that was in front of a broken-down house.

After resting on the bench for awhile, the man decided to go on his way. When he stood up, he realized that he was still hungry. He had not eaten while he was resting, of course!

The man had to go to a store, to buy some food. He looked around but did not see any stores. He asked someone who happened to be passing by, “Where is the nearest fruit store or bakery?”

The man answered, “Oh, it’s pretty far away. You need to go down to the first sign, make a left there, and then go until you see the store. It’s a long walk.”

“Thank you,” the first man said. “To get to the store will take a while, so I think I will leave my bag here and get back to it later,” he thought to himself.

That is what the man did. He left his bag of chickens next to the broken-down house, and went on his way to the food store.

The man found the food store, and went inside to buy something. He bought some food, ate it, and then he felt much better. Now, he had to go back to find his big bag of chickens.

So, the man started walking. He tried to retrace his steps to the broken-down house. He was walking and walking, but could not find the house where he had left his chickens. He soon realized that he was lost.

The man decided that he would not spend forever looking for his chickens. He would just go on his way and leave the chickens behind at the broken-down house.

In the broken-down house, there happened to live the great tzaddik, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa. As we know, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa was very poor.

Well, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa’s wife was in the house and she heard chicken noises coming from outside. She opened the door, and went outside to see where the noise was coming from.

Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa’s wife found the bag of chick-ens. The bag did not have a name on it, so she did not know who had brought it there. But, she did know that there was a mitzva of hashovas aveidoh—returning a lost item to its owner.

So, she brought the chickens into her house. She thought, “Someone must have left these chickens here. I will take care of the chickens until their owner comes back to claim them.”

Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa’s wife then untied the feet of the chickens and fed them. She then put the chickens in a place were they could run around, but would not be able to get lost.

Every day, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa’s wife would feed the chickens. Soon the chickens started laying eggs. Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa could not afford to buy eggs, but here their whole yard was covered with eggs!

But of course, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa or his wife would not take those eggs, because the eggs did not belong to them. The eggs were just spread out all over the yard.

Soon the chickens sat on the eggs, and they hatched. Now, there were not only the original chickens in the yard, but also little chicks.

So, there were more chickens, and more eggs—more chickens, more eggs, more chickens, more eggs, and on and on.

After some time, there were chickens everywhere in Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa’s yard. There were chickens in the house too! The chickens were making so much noise, that it was almost impossible to sleep at night.

So, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa took all the chickens to the marketplace and sold them. With that money, he bought a large herd of goats and brought them home.

The goats were a little easier to control than the chickens. They were kept in a barn, and ate the hay from some of the ownerless fields in the forest.

Soon, the goats gave birth to baby goats, and then those goats grew up and gave birth to more goats. Meanwhile, no one came to claim the bag of chickens.

As more and more goats were being born—and other goats were growing up—it was hard to manage all of them. They all needed eat, and Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa and his wife also need to make sure that none of them were lost.

Well, one day, walking down the street, was the same man who had lost his chickens in the beginning of this story. He was walking with one of his friends.

When the man saw Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa’s house, he said, with a pretty loud voice, “That’s the house! That’s the house!”

His friend asked him: “Which house? What are you talking about?”

“That house over there,” the man answered, “Quite a few years ago, at this house, I lost a big bag of chickens. What happened was, I was walking past here, holding a bag of chickens, and I was very tired and hungry.

“I sat down on this bench to rest, and fell asleep. Then, when I awoke, I wanted to go buy some food. But, as you see now, there were no stores in sight. So, someone told me that to get to the nearest store, one had to go down to the first sign, make a left there, and then just walk straight until one reaches the store.

“I knew that it would be a long walk, so I decided to leave my bag of chickens here. Later, when I wanted to come pick up my chickens, I got lost and could not find this house, so I just decided to forget about the chickens and that was it. This is the first time in years that I saw this house,” concluded the man.

When the man was saying this, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa was right by the window learning. When he heard what the man was saying, he went outside and asked him, “Excuse me, did you once lose chickens here a few years ago?”

“Yes, I did,” the man answered.

“What color were they?” Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa asked.

“They were brown, and they were tied together with red string,” the man answered.

“Well, then I have something for you.” Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa said. “Come with me.”

So, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa showed the man the goats and told him the whole story of what happened to the chickens.

What do we learn from this story?

When we find something that was lost, we should try to return it. This mitzva is called hashovas aveidoh.