Page:Theparadiseoftheholyfathers.djvu/382

 Should we not all have become slaves? Therefore let him sell all the wheat which he hath brought to the laity who are in this district at the rate at which he hath taken it from him that entrusted it to him, that is to say, at thirteen ardebs a dînâr, and after he hath sold them, let him take the gold and carry it to him that gave him credit. And with the one hundred dinars which are mine, let him buy wheat at the rate at which it is sold everywhere and bring it [to me].” And the brother did even as Rabbâ said unto him, and he brought the wheat which he bought at a rate of five and a half ardebs a dînâr. And from that time Rabbâ did not allow that brother to go outside the monastery on business for the brethren, and having made him to remain inside he appointed other brethren to render service of the kind.

ND that same brother [who hath been mentioned above] took away from the shoemaker to sell a large number of shoes (or sandals) and other kinds of objects, and having received as their price a larger sum of money than the shoemaker had mentioned brought to him the oboli; and when the shoemaker had received the oboli, he reckoned up the price of the leather and of the labour of his hands, and the value of the work of the days wherein he had made the various kinds of [leather] objects, and found that it amounted to fifty oboli, whilst the money [which he had received] was three times that amount. Then straightway the shoemaker went to Rabbâ, and said unto him, “Verily, O father, this brother will never prosper by such acts as these, for he still hath in him a worldly mind.” And when Rabbâ said, “What is this matter in which he hath behaved so badly?” the shoemaker answered and said, “I gave him sandals and other kinds of [leather] things to sell, and I said unto him, ‘Their prices are so much,’ but he hath sold them for a great deal more, and he hath brought unto me a price which is three times as large as that which I mentioned to him.” When Rabbâ had heard these things, he called the brother and said unto him, “Why hast thou done thus?” And the brother said unto him, “Father, I told to the people who bought the sandals and the other things the price which this shoemaker told me to take, but they said to me, ‘Brother, if these things had been stolen they would be worth a far higher price than what thou askest’; and I, feeling ashamed, said to them, ‘They have not been stolen, and I have been commanded to