In the small village of Opt there was a simple villager who was very close to the Opter Rov (the famous Rabbi of the town).
When the time came for the villager to marry off his oldest daughter he unfortunately did not have any money to pay for the wedding.
Being at a loss for what to do, the villager approached the Opter Rov to ask his advise.
He explained to the Rabbi that his daughter was engaged to be married and that he needed 1,000 rubbles to finance the wedding.
The Rabbi pulled a rubble out of his pocket, gave it to the villager, and said, ‘take this rubble to the market in the neighboring city, use it to buy the first ‘deal’ that comes to your hand, and from that ‘deal’ you will have enough money to finance your daughter’s wedding.
The villager traveled with his prized rubble to the market, approached the first merchant that he saw, who also happened to be Jewish, and in an unsophisticated tone said that he was looking for a ‘deal’.
The merchant sized up the villager, and asked, ‘how much do you have?’ and the villager replied, ‘one rubble.’
The merchant and his friends roared with laughter, ‘one rubble, you can’t buy anything for one rubble…’
Amidst the laughter, the Merchant turned to his friends, with a smirk on his face, and then back to the villager and said, ‘ you know what I will sell you for one rubble? My Olam Habah (portion in the world to come).’
The villager thought for a second, remembered the words of the Rabbi, and told the merchant that he was willing to accept the transaction.
So the merchant, who was still laughing, took the villager’s money and gave him a written receipt.
When the merchant arrived home that night, he told his wife how he had jokingly sold his Olam Habah to the ignorant villager for one rubble, and even before he had a chance to finish the story his wife interjected, ‘YOU DID WHAT!?!?’ How could you have sold your Olam Habah?
The merchant tried to explain that it was a joke, but the woman, who was much more spiritually inclined than her husband, did not think that selling one’s Olam Habah was a joking matter.
Therefore, she flatly told her husband that if wasn’t willing to buy back his Olam Habah, she would leave him.
Being left without any alternative, the merchant returned to town to find the villager and buy back his Olam Habah for two rubbles, but when he found the villager, the villager was not willing to sell it back.
So the merchant returned home, not knowing what to do, and after explaining the situation to his wife, she said, ‘so, if he didn't want to sell it for two rubbles, offer him five, ten, or whatever it takes to convince him to sell it back.’
The merchant returned to the villager offering him five rubbles, then ten, then twenty, all of which were rejected.
Finally the merchant gave in and said, ‘I will give you whatever you want. I am desperate. Just name your price,’ and without a bat of the eye the villager said, ‘I will only sell it for 1,000 rubbles!’
The merchant was taken back by such a steep price. He ran home to ask his wife her opinion, and she said, ‘it is a lot of money but what can you do?’
With that being said, the merchant returned to the man with the money and bought back his Olam Habah.
The wife, who by now was moderately intrigued by the whole situation, figured that there must be some story behind the villager’s odd purchase and hefty sell-back price. So she went out to ask the villager what was going on.
She found the villager and asked him to explain his story, and he simply told her that he needed money to pay for his daughter’s wedding, that the Opter Rov instructed him to go to the market and buy the first ‘deal’ he could find, which happened to be the merchant’s Olam Habah, and then sell that purchase to pay for the wedding.
After hearing the villager’s story the woman was desperate to know whether or not her husband had paid too much to buy back his Olam Habah.
So she traveled to the Opter Rov, told him the story, and asked, ‘was 1,000 rubbles too much to pay?’
The Opter Rov thought for a moment and replied, ‘when your husband sold his Olam Habah, it wasn’t even worth the rubble that he sold it for because in his lack of doing mitzvahs his Olam Habah was nearly worthless, but once he had committed himself to be the sole beneficiary to sponsor such a great mitzvah, the wedding of an impoverished family, his Olam Habah instantly became worth hundreds of times more than the price he bought it back for,’
