of the money in the vessel on the physicians, and was not in the least benefited thereby. At length another physician came unto him and said, “If thou dost not cut off thy foot all thy body will putrefy,” and he came to consider the cutting off of his foot. And in the night he came to himself, and he groaned, and wept, and said, “Remember, O Lord, my former deeds,” and straightway a man appeared behind him, and said unto him, “Where are thy oboli?” and the gardener said immediately, “I have sinned, forgive me”; and straightway the man approached his leg, and it was made whole forthwith, and he rose up, and went to the garden to work. And in the morning the physician came to cut off his foot as he had said, and [the servants] told him, “He went to this work in the night”; and straightway [the gardener] glorified God.
171. Abbâ Agathon saw Abbâ Nastîr wearing two shoulder wrappers, and he said unto him, “If a poor man were to come, and ask thee for a garment, which of them wouldst thou give him?” And Abbâ Nastîr replied, “I would give him the better of them”; and Abbâ Agathon said unto him, “And if another poor man came, what wouldst thou give him?” Abbâ Nastîr saith unto him, “I would give him the half of that which remained.” And Abbâ Agathon said unto him, “Supposing yet another beggar came, what wouldst thou give unto him?” And Nastîr said unto him, “I would cut the half which remained into two pieces, and give one to him, and with the other I would cover my body.” And Abbâ Agathon said unto him, “And supposing yet another beggar were to come?” and Nastîr said, “I would give him what was left. For though I do not wish to receive anything from any man, yet I would go and sit down in some place until God sent me wherewith to cover myself.”
172. The blessed woman Eugenia said, “It is right for us to beg, but only we must be with Christ. He who is with Christ becometh rich, but he who honoureth the things of the body more than the things of the spirit shall fall both from the things which are first and the things which are last.”
173. One of the old men said, “How can a man teach unto his neighbour that which he himself doth not observe?”
174. They say that Abbâ Theodore excelled in the three following things more than any other man, and that he attained in their performance a degree which was greater than that of many, namely, voluntary poverty, self-abnegation, and flight from the children of men.
175. Abbâ Poemen used to say, “He who laboureth and keepeth [the result of] his work for himself is a twofold grief.”
