GC 109

English

The merchant who did not give alms

The account of many people confirms that this happened somewhere in a port on the sea. A poor man who was old and weighed down with bags came to the seacoast. He went to the port and began to seek alms from ship-owners. He repeatedly begged from a man who was captain of a ship and said: ‘Give me something.’ The other man was upset and said: ‘Stop it, I ask of you, decrepit old man, and do not beg me for anything; for here [in this ship] we have nothing except stones.’ The poor man replied: ‘If you say that the ship in your command contains stones, then everything will be changed into stones.’ And immediately the entire cargo of the ship, whatever could be eaten, was changed to stone. I myself saw dates from this cargo, and I saw olives that were harder than marble. For although they were changed into the hardness of a stone, they never lost the color they had had, and both shape and appearance remained the same. Although the captain of the ship was moved to repentance, he could never find the old man whom he sought. Some say that he sent [a sample] from the goods that were changed to stone for viewing in many cities, so that it might be an example for everyone that they do not do the same. Behold what you do, shameless greediness! You have made a pauper out of a man who thought he could become wealthier by not giving something to a poor man.

Latin

Sic et quodam loco in portu maris gestum fuisse, multorum confirmat relatio. Quidam pauper et senex, marsupiis oneratus, venit ad litus maris; et accedens ad portum, petere elymosinam a naucleriis coepit atque ille qui prior carinae erat inportunior adsistebat, dicens: 'Da mihi aliquid'. Tunc ille commotus ait: 'Absiste, quaeso, decrepite, et noli nobis quaerere quicquam, [quia]: nihil enim hic aliud praeter lapides habemus'. At ille ait: 'Si lapides dicis esse, quae in tuis ditionibus navis haec contenet, omnia vertantur in lapides'. Et statim cunctam navis onus, quod mandi potuit, in saxo conversum est. Ego enim ex his et dactilos vidi et olivas aspexi marmore duriores. Nam cum in lapidis duritia conversa fuissent, numquam tamen colorem quem habuerant perdiderunt, nisi eadem formae eademque species erat. Dominus autem navis paenitentia motus, inquesitum senem nusquam potuit repperire; et, sicut ferunt, per multas civitates de his quae in saxo mutata fuerant ad videndum direxit, ut scilicet exemplum esset omnibus, ne similia perpetrarent. Ecce quid agis inpudens avaritia! Fecisti hominem pauperem, qui non porrigendo pauperi putavit se posse fieri ditiorem.