Kethuboth, fol. 105, col. 1.

Rav Hunna had four hundred casks of wine which had turned into vinegar.  On hearing of his misfortune, Rav Yehudah, the brother of Rav Salla the Holy, or, as some say, Rav Adda bar Ahavah, came and visited him, accompanied by the Rabbis.  “Let the master,” said they, “examine himself carefully.”  “What!” said he, “do you suppose me to have been guilty of wrong-doing?” “Shall we then,” said they, “suspect the Holy One—­blessed be He!—­of executing judgment without justice?” “Well,” said Rav Hunna, “if you have heard anything against me, don’t conceal it.”  “It has been reported to us,” said they, “that the master has withheld the gardener’s share of the prunings.”  “What else, pray, did he leave me?” retorted Rav Hunna; “he has stolen all the produce of my vineyard.”  They replied, “There is a saying that whoever steals from a thief smells of theft.”  “Then,” said he, “I hereby promise to give him his share.”  Thereupon, according to some, the vinegar turned to wine again; and, according to others, the price of vinegar rose to the price of wine.

Berachoth, fol. 5, col. 2.

Rav Adda bar Ahavah once saw a Gentile woman in the market-place wearing a red head-dress, and supposing that she was a daughter of Israel, he impatiently tore it off her head.  For this outrage he was fined a fine of four hundred zouzim.  He asked the woman what her name was, and she replied, “My name is Mathan.”  “Methun, Methun,” he wittily rejoined, “is worth four hundred zouzim.”

Ibid., fol. 20, col. 1.

Methun means patience and Mathan two hundred.  The point lies either in the application of the term Methun, which means patience, as if to say, had he been so patient as to have first ascertained what the woman was, he would have saved his four hundred zouzim; or in the identity of the sound Mathan, i.e., two hundred, which doubled, equals four hundred.  This has long since passed into a proverb, and expresses the value of patience.

From the foregoing extract it would seem that it was not the fashion among Jewish females to wear head-dresses of a red color, as it was presumed to indicate a certain lightness on the part of the wearer; so Rav Adda in his pious zeal thought he was doing a good work in tearing it off from the head of the supposed Jewess.  “Patience, patience is worth four hundred zouzim.”

Custom among the Jews had then, as now, the force of religion.  The Talmud says, “A man should never deviate from a settled custom.  Moses ascended on high and did not eat bread (for there it is not the custom); angels came down to earth and did eat bread (for here it is the custom so to do).”  Bava Metzia, fol. 86, col. 2.

In the olden time it was not the fashion for a Jew to wear black shoes (Taanith, fol. 22, col. 1).  Even now, in Poland, a pious Jew, or a Chasid, would on no account wear polished boots