Avodah Zarah

NO MAN SHOULD BE ALONE WITH THEM. Our Rabbis taught: If a Jew happens to be overtaken by an idolater while on the road, he should let him walk on his right.  R. Ishmael the son of R. Johanan the son of R. Johanan b. Berokah says: [If the heathen is armed] with a sword, he should be let to walk on the right; if with a stick on the left.  If they are ascending or descending, let not the Israelite be on the lower level and the heathen on the higher, but the Israelite higher and the heathen lower; nor should the Israelite bend down in front of him, lest he smashes his skull. If the heathen asks him whither he is going, he should say towards a place beyond his actual destination,  just as our father Jacob acted towards the wicked Esau; for Scripture says, Until I come unto my lord to Seir,  while it records, And Jacob journeyed to Succoth.  It once happened to some disciples of R. Akiba that while journeying to Chezib  they were overtaken by robbers who asked them whither they were going. They replied, 'To Acco'.  On reaching Chezib they stopped.  The robbers then said to them, 'Whose disciples are you?' And they replied, 'The disciples of R. Akiba.' Said they, Happy are R. Akiba and his disciples, for no evil man has ever encountered them. R. Manashi was once going