"Let him go, granny, he will not do it again. Let him go, for Christ's sake!"
The woman let go of him. The boy wanted to run, but Avdyéich held on to him.
"Beg the grandmother's forgiveness," he said. "Don't do that again,—I saw you take the apple."
The boy began to cry, and he asked her forgiveness.
"That's right. And now, take this apple!" Avdyéich took an apple from the basket and gave it to the boy. "I will pay for it, granny," he said to the old woman.
"You are spoiling these ragamuffins," said the old woman. "He ought to be rewarded in such a way that he should remember it for a week."
"Oh, granny, granny!" said Avdyéich. "That is according to our ways, but how is that according to God's ways? If he is to be whipped for an apple, what ought to be done with us for our sins?"
The old woman grew silent.
And Avdyéich told the old woman the parable of the lord who forgave his servant his whole large debt, after which the servant went and took his fellow servant who was his debtor by the throat. The old woman listened to him, and the boy stood and listened, too.
"God has commanded that we should forgive," said Avdyéich, "or else we, too, shall not be forgiven. All are to be forgiven, but most of all an unthinking person."