they returned to their home and ruth decided she would go into the fields to pick up grain the wealthy people would drop on the ground (a common practice in that time). a kind man named boaz, who was the owner of the field, noticed her and her beauty. he also learned that she had chosen to follow the god of israel and that she was caring for her widowed mother-in-law. he told his workers to drop extra grain for her. when she went home to tell her mother-in-law how much she received, they found out that boaz was a close relative of theirs. under jewish law, this gave ruth the right to marry boaz, if boaz bought the land formerly owned by ruth's husband.