Story: Reb Mendel & the Pickpocket

Reb Mendel, a chassid with a long white beard, was arrested for helping to smuggle Jews out of
the former Soviet Union. He sat in a Gulag in Siberia and was housed in a barrack full of
gangsters. The gangsters played cards, a pastime forbidden in the Gulag. So they posted a
watchman at the door and whenever the guards arrived, the alarm was raised and the cards
were hidden.
The prison guards knew about the card games, but try as they might, they could never find the
evidence. The guard would break into the room, search every nook and cranny and somehow
the cards always eluded him. Reb Mendel did his best to watch the gangsters and discover
where the cards were hidden, but he never managed to detect the hiding place.
One day Reb Mendel asked a fellow gangster where the cards were hidden and the gangster
explained the secret. Among us, he said, there is a master pickpocket. We pass the cards to him
and as soon as the guard enters the pickpocket slips them into the guard’s back pocket. The
guard looks everywhere for the cards, but he can’t find them because he already has them.
And, pray tell, asked Reb Mendel, how do you get them back? That’s simple, replied the
gangster. Just before the guard leaves, the pickpocket takes them back.
Whenever Reb Mendel retold this story he would have a good laugh, but then he would sober and
explain the moral. Reb Mendel’s stories always came with a moral. The moral of the story is that when
you criticize others, make sure to check yourself first. You may indeed be the guilty party.