like unto me?  If he hath a complaint to make thinkest thou that he will not stand, if he is a lazy man, at the door of his house?  He whom thou forcest to speak will not remain silent.  He whom thou forcest to wake up will not remain asleep.  The faces which thou makest keen will not remain stupid.  The mouth which thou openest will not remain closed.  He whom thou makest intelligent will not remain ignorant.  He whom thou instructest will not remain a fool.  These are they who destroy evils.  These are the officials, the lords of what is good.  These are the crafts-folk who make what existeth.  These are they who put on their bodies again the heads that have been cut off.”

This peasant came the eighth time to lay his complaint [before Rensi], and said, “O my lord steward, a man falleth because of covetousness.  The avaricious man hath no aim, for his aim is frustrated.  Thy heart is avaricious, which befitteth thee not.  Thou plunderest, and thy plunder is no use to thee.  And yet formerly thou didst permit a man to enjoy that to which he had good right!  Thy daily bread is in thy house, thy belly is filled, grain overfloweth [in thy granaries], and the overflow perisheth and is wasted.  The officials who have been appointed to suppress acts of injustice have been rapacious robbers, and the officials who have been appointed to stamp out falsehood have become hiding-places for those who work iniquity.  It is not fear of thee that hath driven me to make my complaint to thee, for thou dost not understand my mind (or heart).  The man who is silent and who turneth back in order to bring his miserable state [before thee] is not afraid to place it before thee, and his brother doth not bring [gifts] from the interior of [his quarter].  Thy estates are in the fields, thy food is on [thy] territory, and thy bread is in the storehouse, yet the officials make gifts to thee and thou seizest them.  Art thou not then a robber?  Will not the men who plunder hasten with thee to the divisions of the fields?  Perform the truth for the Lord of Truth, who possesseth the real truth.  Thou writing reed, thou roll of papyrus, thou palette, thou Thoth, thou art remote from acts of justice.  O Good One, thou art still goodness.  O Good One, thou art truly good.  Truth endureth for ever.  It goeth down to the grave with those who perform truth, it is laid in the coffin and is buried in the earth; its name is never removed from the earth, and its name is remembered on earth for good (or blessing).  That is the ordinance of the word of God.  If it be a matter of a hand-balance it never goeth askew; if it be a matter of a large pair of scales, the standard thereof never inclineth to one side.  Whether it be I who come, or another, verily thou must make speech, but do not answer whether thou speakest to one who ought to hold his peace, or whether thou seizest one who cannot seize thee.  Thou art not merciful, thou art not considerate.  Thou hast not withdrawn thyself, thou hast not gone afar off.  But thou