When He had so spoken a very old man came up to Him and said:  “Rabbi, you are poor, and it is easy for you to talk.  You do not know how difficult it is for a rich man to cease adding to his wealth.  Oh, the delightful time I had when I was poor!  Then I began to get money unawares, was glad of it, and began to fear I might lose it.  And then as the needs of my family increased more quickly than my means, I thought my money was not sufficient, and the more one had the more one required.  I am now an old man; I possess thirty sacks full of gold, and I know that I cannot enjoy my wealth any more.  But I cannot stop gaining and amassing.  I could sooner stop breathing.”

Jesus told the old man a little story:  “Some children by the roadside attacked a strange boy for the sake of some broken potsherds which they were collecting.  But when they had got a great heap together the roadman came along, and with his spade threw the pieces into the gutter.  The children raised a great cry.  But the man saw that there was blood on some of the fragments, and asked:  ’Where did you get these from?’ Whereupon the children grew pale with terror, and the man took them off to the magistrate.”

The old man understood.  He went away and compensated all who had come to harm through him, and then on his way home he started once more to amass treasure!

The next day Jesus and His followers reached another village.  There all was quiet, and the inhabitants lay under the fig-trees although it was not the Sabbath.  Then Jesus asked:  “Why do they not work?”

And one of the villagers said:  “We should like to work, but we have no tools.  We want spades, ploughs, sickles, and axes, but our smith is always making holiday.  And it is just he who makes the best knives.  There are no other smiths here.”

Our wanderers then went to the smith.  The man was sitting in his room, reading the Holy Scriptures and praying.  One of the disciples asked him why he was not at work although it was a week-day.

The smith replied:  “Since I heard the Prophet it is always Sabbath with me.  For a man should not strive after material property, neither should he take any care for the morrow, but seek the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Then Jesus went to the entrance of the house, and told, so that the smith could hear Him, of the man who made a journey.  “Before he departed he called his servants together and gave them money with which to carry on the work of the house.  He gave the first five heavy pieces of gold, the second two, and the third one.  They were to keep house according to their own discretion.  When after a long time the master returned, he desired his servants to account for the way in which they had employed the money.  The first had increased it tenfold.  ’I am glad,’ said the master, ’and because you are faithful in little I will trust you much—­keep the gold.’  The second servant had increased the money twofold;