الكافي 1/4/125/30

30. Al-Husayn ibn al-Hassan al-‘Alawi has said the following. “A man who was an informer for Ruz Hassani with another man with him once said to Ruz, “This man (al-Mahdi عليه السلام is out there. Money is collected for him. He has representatives in many places. They mentioned his representatives by their names in different areas. This news reached ‘Ubaydallah ibn Sulayman, the vizier. The Vizier decided to arrest these representatives. The Sultan said, “Find out. Where is this man? This is a serious matter.” ‘Ubaydallah ibn Sulayman then said, “We will arrest the representatives, the agent.” The Sultan said, “No, you must send your undercover agents who would pose to them as devotees ready to pay their dues to their Imam. If they accepted the funds then arrest them.” The narrator has said that message came out from the holy location (office of Imam al-Mahdi عليه السلام to inform all the representatives not to accept any dues from anyone, deny knowing anything about the Imam عليه السلام and say that they have no information. A man who was an undercover agent came to Muhammad ibn Ahmad whom he did not know. The undercover agent spoke to him privately and said, “I have certain funds with me and I want it to be delivered to the holy location (office of Imam al-Mahdi عليه السلام .” Muhammad said to him, “You have made a mistake. I do not know anything about it. He would insist and try to show kindness and Muhammad would deny having any knowledge of it. The spies spread to all places but the representatives refuse to accept any funds because of the message that was dilivered to them before hand.”