The story of Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (1831-1895), first published in 1889. In Syria, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, north of Gaza and south of Azot, stood the city of Ascalon, which does not exist today. In Hebrew it was called Jora. Ascalon, or Jora, was founded in ancient times by the Philistines and destroyed by the Turkish Sultan Salladin. In the long century of this city it happened to be pagan, Christian and Muslim. During one of these periods, or rather, during one of the transitions from one position to another, the following characteristic incident occurred there, noted in part in the writings of Eusebius of Ascalon