may be able to keep thee in remembrance in our monastery”; and Akîlâ said again, “I am not at leisure [to do so].” Then the third brother, on whom [rested] the suspicion of evil, also said unto him, “Father, make me a net which I can possess [direct] from thy hands”; and Akîlâ answered straightway, and said unto this man, “I will make one for thee.” And afterwards the [other] two brethren said unto him privately, “[Consider] how much we entreated thee, and yet thou wouldst not be persuaded to make [a net] for us, and thou didst say to this man, ‘I will make thee one immediately!’ ” The old man said unto them, “I told you that I would not make one, and ye were not grieved, because I had not the leisure; but if I had not made one for this man, he would have said, ‘It was because the old man had heard about my sins that he was unwilling to make a net for me.’ ”
416. On one occasion three brethren went to harvest, and the three of them undertook to reap the harvest [in certain fields] together for a certain sum of money; but one of them fell sick on the first day, and was unable to work, and he went back and lay down in his cell. Then one of the two brethren who remained said unto his companion, “Behold, O my brother, thou seest that our brother hath fallen sick, let us exert ourselves a little, thou and I, and let us believe that by his prayers we shall be sufficiently strong to do his share of the work of harvest for him.” Then when the harvest was ended, and they came to receive their hire, they called the [sick] brother, and said unto him, “Come, brother, and take also the hire of thy harvesting”; and he said, “What hire can there be for me since I have not been harvesting?” And they said unto him, “Through thy prayers the harvest hath been reaped; come now, and take [thy] hire.” Then the contention between them waxed strong, for the [sick] brother contended that he ought not to receive [any wages], and they said, “We will not leave thee until thou dost.” So they went, that they might be heard by a certain great old man, and that brother answered and said, “O father, three of us went to harvest, but I fell sick on the first day, and went and lay down in my cell, and although I did not work even one day these brethren urge me, saying, ‘Come and take the hire for which thou didst not work.’ ” Then the two brethren said, “Three of us went to the harvest, and we took certain fields [to reap] together, and if we had been thirty we should have succeeded in reaping them with great labour; but through the prayers of this our brother the two of us reaped them quickly, and we said to him, ‘Come, take thy hire, because, through thy prayers, God helped us, and we reaped quickly,’ but he
