  We report on a puzzling event occurred during a long BeppoSAX observation of
the slow-rotating binary pulsar GX 1+4. During this event, lasting about 1 day,
the source X-ray flux was over a factor 10 lower than normal. The low-energy
pulsations disappeared while at higher energies they were shifted in phase. The
spectrum taken outside this low-intensity event was well fitted by an absorbed
cut-off power law, and exhibited a broad iron line at ~6.5 keV probably due to
the blending of the neutral (6.4 keV) and ionised (6.7 keV) K_alpha iron lines.
The spectrum during the event was Compton reflection dominated and it showed
two narrow iron lines at ~6.4 keV and ~7.0 keV, the latter never revealed
before in this source. We also present a possible model for this event in which
a variation of the accretion rate thickens a torus-like accretion disc which
hides for a while the direct neutron star emission from our line of sight. In
this scenario the Compton reflected emission observed during the event is well
explained in terms of emission reflected by the side of the torus facing our
line of sight.
