Rav Amram Chasida Cries Fire
Overcome by desire for a captive woman in his attic, Rav Amram Chasida climbs a heavy ladder, then stops halfway and shouts "Fire!" to bring the rabbis running.
It happened that some redeemed captive women were brought to the house of Rav Amram Chasida in Nahardea, since he had been instrumental in their release. They were placed in the second story of his house. The ladder was removed, thereby preventing access to the second floor. As one of the women passed by the hatch that was used as a passageway between the upper and lower stories of the house, a light shone into the house through the hatch, illuminating the beautiful face of one of the women.
Rav Amram was so taken by the beauty of this woman that he replaced the ladder under the hatch, though the ladder was ordinarily too heavy for one man to lift by himself! Overcome with desire, he began to ascend. When he reached the middle of the ladder, he froze in place and began to scream, “There is a fire in the house of Amram!”
The rabbis came running and saw that there was not any fire. Realizing that Rav Amram had been about to commit a sin, they shouted at him, “You have put us to shame!” He replied, “Better that you be shamed in the house of Amram in this world, and not be ashamed of him in the World to Come” (Kiddushin 81a).