In the middle of the night, he heard the ghosts of two girls talking to one another:

"Come on, let's float over the worlds and eavesdrop on God to find out what kind of year it will be."

The other replied: "I can't go with you, I've been buried in a shroud of reeds. Why don't you go and then tell me everything you've heard."

The ghost flew off alone, and after a while she came back and said to her friend:

"I heard that the man who sows his grain in the first half of Heshvan [late October] will have his entire crop destroyed by hail."

When the pious man heard this, he sowed his grain in the second half of Heshvan [early November]. A hailstorm ruined all the crops that had been planted in the first half of Heshvan. But the pious man's grain, which had been sown in the second half of Heshvan, was saved.

The next year, the pious man went back to spend the night in the graveyard and hear what the ghosts said to one another.

All at once he heard one ghost say to another:

"Come on, let's go hear what's happening in the world this year."

The second dead girl replied: "I've already told you, I can't move because I'm all bound up in a shroud of reeds. Why don't you go and then tell me everything you've heard."

So she left and after a while she came back and told the other:

"I heard that the man who sows his grain in the second half of Heshvan will have his crop devasted by a hailstorm."

The pious man went home and sowed all his grains in the first half of Heshvan. A hailstorm destroyed all the crops that had been sown in the second half of Heshvan, but it didn't hurt the pious man, for he had sown earlier.

His wife was amazed, and she asked him:

"Dear husband. How can it be that all the crops were ruined, but not yours? There is more here than meets the eye."

So he told her the whole story, about eavesdropping on the two ghosts and hearing what they said, and how one of them couldn't move because she had been buried in a shroud of reeds.

Not long after that, the pious man's wife had a fight with the mother of the dead girl who had been buried in a shroud of reeds. Now women often get into fights. And the pious man's wife yelled at the mother: "Just go and see your poor daughter, who was buried in a shroud of reeds!"

Two days later, the pious man once again went to the graveyard to hear the two ghosts conversing. Once again, one dead girl said to the other: "Come on. Let's go and hear what will be happening this year."

"Forget about it. The secret is out, people have been eavesdropping on our conversations."