A certain man came to the Baal Shem Tov's house and greeted the Besht. The Besht returned his greeting and asked, "How can I help you?" "I don't have anything particularly to ask from Your Honor," said the man. "I happened to be passing through Medzibuz and said to myself, 'Can a Jew be in Medzibuz and not visit the famous Rabbi Israel?' Other than that, I don't need any help or advice. I'm making a decent living, my family is healthy, thank God!" "Seeing that you don't need anything from me, let me tell you a story," said the Besht.

"In a certain city there were two friends who grew up together. They studied together as children in the same cheder, and as youths sat studying Torah together in the beit midrash. They truly loved each other. They could not believe they would ever separate or grow distant from one another. The time came for them to marry; one married a girl in his own home town while the other found his wife in Berditchev, where he moved after the wedding. But before he left, the two friends agreed to correspond. At first, they wrote regularly. But as years passed, because of their many concerns and worries, the number of letters they exchanged dwindled and finally stopped completely.

"Now, one day it happened that the wheel of fortune turned for the friend who lived in Berditchev. He descended so low that he could barely put food on the table for his family. Then he remembered his former best friend from his home town, who, he had heard, was very successful and wealthy. So he travelled to him to seek help in his hour of need. When he arrived, his old friend received him with much warmth and joy. They sat and conversed like in the old days, nostalgically sharing memories from their youth. While they were in this good mood, the man from Berditchev told his friend what was troubling him and asked him to rescue him from his poverty and starvation. "Not only will I do that," said his friend, "but I'm going to give you half of my whole fortune, because we're like brothers. My soul is linked to your soul since our earliest days. So, my brother, I'm ready to give you half of everything I own. Like our Sages, of blessed memory, say: 'mine is yours.' So you can consider it done, signed and sealed.'

"He fulfilled his promise and gave his friend half of his wealth. The visitor returned to Berditchev, paid off his debts, and once again started his business. After a while his fortunes revived, he had a successful and flourishing business, and he became wealthy.

However, for the other friend, in their home town, the wheel turned the other way; he suddenly lost all his money in a bad business deal and became poor and needy. In his despair, he also remembered his friend from youth who, not many years ago, he had helped generously and rescued from poverty. So he traveled to Berditchev and when he arrived was happy to hear that his friend, who had been so low, had come up again and was now successful and wealthy. He was imagining that his friend would now pay him back for the help he had given. How surprised and disheartened he was to hear his friend refuse to help him and explain away his hard heart by saying, 'I certainly remember how you helped me when I was down, but I'm sorry to say I can't help you at all. Because it’s clear that there's a revolving wheel connecting us. When you're up, I'm down, and when I'm up, you're down. If I help you now and you go back into business and succeed, you'll go up and I'll go down. Everybody knows that a person must look out for himself first and no one is going to purposely make himself poor by his own doing. Neither is anyone obligated to dig himself a hole to fall into!' He went on and on making more excuses for his hard heart and ended, 'I'm sorry; I can't help you.'

The other friend returned home in humiliation. But he did not let his spirits fall. He still had some good friends in his home town, who helped him financially, either a lot or a little. He once again turned his hand to business and, with God's help, became successful again, and wealthy. But the finger of providence once again intervened: When the sun shined for this friend, it set for the other! The friend in Berditchev started to fail; he lost all his money and once again became a beggar.

"Once again, he turned to his friend in his home town. His old friend did not hold a grudge against him or bear him any resentment for his hardheartedness. On the contrary, this time too he received him warmly and helped him generously, giving him again half of his wealth. He also told him explicitly that he had even forgiven him for what he had done earlier, because he had fully trusted that God would send him help from another quarter.

"After a number of years, both friends passed away on the same day. When they appeared before the Heavenly Court, it was decreed that the good friend go to the Garden of Eden and the ungrateful friend to Gehinnom. But the good friend said that he would refuse to enter the Garden of Eden unless they allowed his friend to go in with him, because they had gone to cheder together, and sat in the beit midrash together, studying Talmud and the halachic codes. When the Heavenly Court heard this demand of the faithful friend, there was a big commotion. They sat and investigated the two men's judgments. They decreed that both friends would return to the lower world and again grow up together, and the good friend would be poor and needy. If his wealthy friend repaired the fault from his previous life, and helped his poor friend generously, then, when his time came, he would receive his portion in the Garden of Eden. If not, not.

"That is what happened," continued the Baal Shem Tov. "Now, when the poor friend arrived at his rich friend's house to ask for help, he found a scowling servant at the threshold, who refused to allow him into the house. The poor man stood at the door yelling at the top of his lungs to the servant to let him in. But the nasty servant yelled back with curses and abuse. The rich man heard the yelling outside his door and went out angrily and ordered his servant to throw the troublesome beggar off the stairs. The beggar, who was broken and weak from his wanderings and very ill too, fell down the stairs and died on the spot."

When the visitor to Medzibuz heard this story from the mouth of the Baal Shem Tov, he cried out and collapsed in a faint. When he regained consciousness, he began to sob and wail terribly and cried out, "Oy, oy! I'm the wicked person who rejected that desperate beggar a few days ago and I ordered my servant to throw him out. The servant pushed him harder than he intended and the poor beggar died right there!"

"You said that you didn't need any help or advice," said the Baal Shem Tov. "Is there anyone who doesn't need help or advice?"

Someone who arrogantly believes that he does not need a tzaddik's guidance or assistance is headed for a downfall. Because of this man's material well-being he thought that he had no need for help or advice. But he had forgotten about his spiritual needs, just as he had forgotten about his friend’s needs. With the Baal Shem Tov's holy spirit and knowledge of past lives, he could reveal to a person his story and his secret. We too imagine we are fine and do not need help or advice, yet our situation is equally desperate.