The late Mr. Islami Torbati who was the Imam’s neighbour in the city of Qom had narrated thus: “One day we were walking with the Imam on our way to attending the late Mr. Shahabadi’s class. It was a very cold winter season and we were walking past the ‘Hujjatiyyah’ seminary that we saw a woman sitting by the riverside and washing dirty rags and linen. I wasn’t sure if they were her own linens and rags or she was a domestic maidservant and they were somebody else’s. We noticed that she was breaking the frozen river’s ice and washing the rags and then withdrawing her hands from the frigid water, warming her cold hands with her breath and then restarting the process of washing all over again. The Imam looked at her for a while and then stated to me: “You proceed and I shall come later.” I asked him what he wanted to do and if I could be of any help but he replied in the negative and asked me to proceed. He then went at the side of the woman and helped her in washing the clothes, rinsing them and putting them aside and handed a note to her as well. Later on we learnt that it was the woman’s address which he had taken from her. We tried hard to find out from the Imam as to what the issue was but he simply stated that it was nothing important. Later it became clear that he had told the woman to come to his residence and that he would instruct the household to provide her with hot water to wash her clothes. He also told her not go to the riverside for washing her linen anymore and that he would help her out in the washing as well.
Name of the narrator: Hujjat al-Islam wal Muslimeen Borhani
Title of the Book: Impressions and Memoirs about Imam Khomeini's Practical Behaviour, vol. 1, chapter two, page 215