so that he might make a prayer and cleanse a house of idols; and as they were eating with him, flesh of a calf was set before them, and they ate it in simplicity, doubting nothing. And the Archbishop took a piece of meat and gave it to an old man who was near him, saying, “Behold, this piece of meat is very good, father”; and they all answered and said unto him, “Behold, up to the present we have been eating herbs, but if it be flesh, we do not eat flesh,” and not one of them ate anything more.
530. They used to tell a story of a brother who was the neighbour of an old Rabbâ, and say that he would go into the cell of the old man, and steal whatsoever he found there, and though the old man saw him he never rebuked him, but worked with his hands and wearied himself the more, saying, “Perhaps that brother is in need”; and the old man suffered much tribulation at the thought, and ate his food in sadness. And when the old man was about to die, the brethren sat round about him, and when he saw in their midst the brother who used to steal from him, he said unto him, “My son, come near to me”; and when he had drawn nigh to him, he kissed his hands, saying, “My brother, I am grateful to these hands, for through them I shall enter the kingdom of heaven.” Now when that brother heard these things he was sorry, and he also repented, and he became a well-tried monk through the things which he had seen in that old man.
531. On one occasion, when Abbâ Agathon was travelling, and some young men were with him, one of them found a small bag on the road, and he said to him, “Father, dost thou wish me to take this little bag?” and the old man looked at him in wonder, saying, “My son, didst thou place it there?” And the young man said, “No.” Then the old man said unto him, “If thou didst not place it there, how canst thou desire to take it?”
532. Abbâ Joseph, the priest of Ascalon, told us the following story, saying: There was a certain merchant in Ascalon who borrowed from other people much money, and he hired a ship for himself and put out to sea; and a fierce storm rose up against him, and he lost everything which he had with him; but he himself was saved. And when he returned to the city those to whom he owed money seized him, and they took everything which he had in his house, and sold it, and shut him up in prison; but they left him his wife as an act of charity, so that she might beg for him and feed him. And the woman went about from door to door, and she herself begged for bread for her husband; and one day as she was sitting and eating bread with her husband, one of the chief men of the
