Once Imam Bukhari R.A was on a voyage by boat with the intention to get knowledge. He had 1000 Dinars. A man amongst the travelers ingratiated himself with Imam Bukhari. He outwardly showed his love and affection towards Imam Bukhari R.A. As they were on the journey, he successfully developed the friendship with Hazrat Imam Bukhari. He started spending much of time with Hazrat Imam Bukhari R.A. Hazrat Imam Bukhari revealed upon him that he had 1000 Dinars.
In the next morning, the so-called friend of Hazrat Imam Bukhari R.A woke up and began to cry, scream and tear out his clothes. His such activities were to show that he had suffered a great loss. The travelers asked him what happened to him. He pretended to be in the state of sudden shock that made him unable to realize the situation. They insisted him to tell them the story. Then he said to them that he had lost his bag of 1000 dinars.
The crewmembers of the ship searched the passengers. They searched all the passengers. In the meantime, Hazrat Imam Bukhari R.A became aware of an incident, he made sure that no one was looking at him, threw his bag of dinars into the sea. When they crewmembers searched him, they found nothing.
After searching the entire ship and passengers on it, the In charge of the ship punished the man for making a false story and putting them in trouble for none. When the ship reached its destination port, the passengers began to disembark, an old friend of Imam Bukhari went to him and asked about his bag of Dinars.
Hazrat Imam Bukhari R.A replied, “I threw it into the sea” The man was shocked and asked him, “had you patiently accepted the fact that you had lost your huge money”.
Hazrat Imam Bukhari R.A replied, “O Ignorant one, “Do you not know that I have spent my entire life gathering the Ahadeeth of the Prophet (?) and that the world now acknowledges my trustworthiness. Would it then have been befitting for me to subject myself to the accusation of theft? And shall I lose the precious pearl i.e. my knowledge and achievements as a scholar that I have earned in a lifetime over a limited number of dinars?”
Narrated by: Al-Ajloonee in Al-Fawaaid Ad-daraaree,