Charity distributed from an ox’s skin that is filled with treasure counts for less than a dinar given from the wages of toil.
Every man’s burden is suited to his strength—heavy to the ant is the foot of the locust.
Do good to others so that on the morrow God may not deal harshly with thee.
Be lenient with thy slave, for he may one day become a king, like a pawn that becomes a queen.
Story Apropos of Nemesis
A poor man complained of his distressed condition to one who was rich as well as ill-dispositioned. The latter refused to help him, and turned roughly upon him in anger.
The beggar’s heart bled by reason of this violence: “Strange!” he reflected, “that this rich man should be of such forbidding countenance! Perhaps he fears not the bitterness of begging.”
The rich man ordered his slave to drive the beggar away. As a result of his ingratitude for the blessings that he enjoyed, Fortune forsook him, and he lost all that he possessed. His slave passed into the hands of a generous man of enlightened mind, who was as gladdened at the sight of a beggar as the latter is at the sight of riches.[14]
One night a beggar asked alms of the latter, and he commanded his slave to give the man to eat. When the slave took food to the supplicant he involuntarily uttered a cry, and went back weeping.