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Wednesday December 17 2025, 13H44
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On one occasion five brothers came to visit a great old man, and he asked the first one, saying, 'What kind of work do thou?' And he said to him, 'I twist palm leaves into ropes, father'; and the old man said to him, 'God will plait a crown for you, O my son.' Then he said to the second brother, 'And what do you do?' And he said to him, 'I make mats, father'; and the old man said to him, God will give you strength, O my son.' And he said to the third brother, 'And what do you do?' And he said unto him, ' [I make] sieves, father'; and the old man said to him, 'God will preserve you, O my son.' Then he asked the fourth brother, saying, 'What do you do?' And he said unto him, ' I can write well.' And the old man said to him, You know.' Then he said to the fifth brother, ' And what do you do?' And he said to him, 'I weave linen.' Then the old man said, ' I am not near,' and he said also, ' If the twister of palm-leaf ropes be watchful with God He will plait him a crown for him; mat[-making] requires strength because there is labour therein; and God must protect him of the sieves because he has to sell them in the villages;as to the scribe, he must be humble in heart, for there is in his business exaltation of spirit, as regards the linen weaver, I am not near (i.e., concerned) to speak, for he is a merchant and he trades. But if a man sees a brother afar off carrying palm branches, or palm-leaf mats, or sieves, he said, ' This man is a monk, for grass is the work of our hands, and he is avoiding the burning of the fire'; and if he sees a man selling linen, he said straightway, ' Behold, the merchants have come, for the [selling of] linen is the work of this world, and it does not benefit many.' '
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