up bitter hostility against him. This fellow tried to exasperate the
king against the boy by some such words as these: 'Master, your
majesty's moderation towards the son of your former counsellor,
whose father left him an inexhaustible supply of money was very
weak, not to say foolish; for now neither you nor he have the
money, because he, silly youth, has squandered it.' The king, moved
to anger by such words, sent a messenger for the young man, to
whom he spoke as follows: "Foolish son of a wise man, idle and
lavishly extravagant, why hast thou wasted the wealth acquired by
wisdom which was entrusted to thy keeping?" To this the youth
replied with dejected countenance — for he feared the face of his
chief, inflamed as it was, with eyes flashing furiously : "Master, if I
may speak with your favor, I am not, as it seems to certain people,
a foolish son entrusted to you by a wise father. My father did
indeed gain wealth, and he placed it where thieves might steal it,
in that he left it to me from whom you could take it, or fire could
burn it or any accident destroy it. But I have bestowed it where it
will be faithfully kept for him and for me." And the king asked
what he had done with it. The youth related to him all his care in
disposing of his wealth, and when the king heard his story he praised
his actions highly in the presence of his attendants, and then received
him into the service formerly done by his father as recompense.
He afterwards gained new wealth and acquired greater
riches than he formerly possessed. It was in this way that the noble
son of the king's counsellor stored away treasure in his home of
delights."
After the son heard these words of his father he said: "That youth acted wisely and gave evidence that great nobility was to be manifested in him. He did as the philosopher who advised his son, saying: 'Son, sell this world for the future, and you will gain both.' And so it happened."[1]
Another saith: "See yee lest yee bien disceived for worldly delites and broken with worldly fallaces and guyles and bien foryeteful of deth to come, lest it fal to the as it fil to the thief entryng (f. 135) the house of the Richeman." To whom the sone and of the fader:[2] "What fil therof, fader?" [The fader]:
XXV.[3] The Thief Caught While Hesitating About What to Take
"The thief entrid the house of the Richeman and fond it ful of
dyvers juels and precious thynges. Of this astonyed of the many
dyvers diversitees and so precious Riches charged hymsilf for to
- ↑ After this the English versioti returns to the dialogue which connects No XXVIII (of the Latin) with No. XXIX, but it omits the first speech of the dialogue! Another correcting his son said; "Son work for the future life before death removes thee from work."
- ↑ Lat. Ede, pater.
- ↑ No. XXX of the original, I, 43, l. 9.
