Then he continued to look at me with a glance that I could feel pierce me but said no more.
‘Is that all?’ I asked.
‘That was sufficient to change the heart of a sheep herder into the heart of a money lender,’ he replied.
‘But all I earn is mine to keep, is it not?’ I demanded.
‘Far from it,’ he replied. ‘Do you not pay the garment-maker? Do you not pay the sandal-maker? Do you not pay for the things you eat? Can you live in Babylon without spending? What have you to show for your earnings of the past month? What for the past year? Fool! You pay to everyone but yourself. Dullard, you labor for others. As well be a slave and work for what your master gives you to eat and wear. If you did keep for yourself one-tenth of all you earn, how much would you have in ten years?’
My knowledge of the numbers did not forsake me, and I answered, ‘As much as I earn in one year.’
‘You speak but half the truth,’ he retorted. ‘Every gold piece you save is a slave to work for you. Every copper it earns is its child that also can earn for you. If you would become wealthy, then what you save must earn, and its children must earn, and its children’s children must earn, that all may help to give to you the abundance you crave.
‘You think I cheat you for your long night’s work,’ he continued, ‘but I am paying you a thousand times over if you have the intelligence to grasp the truth I offer you.
‘A part of all you earn is yours to keep. It should not be less than a tenth no matter how little you earn. It can be as much more as you can afford. Pay yourself first. Do not buy from the clothes-maker and the sandal-maker more than you can pay out of the rest and still have enough for food and charity and penance to the Gods.
—8—
