His master said to him, 'Capital, you excellent and trusty servant! You have been trusty in charge of a small sum: I will put you in charge of a large sum. Come and share your master's feast.'

His master said to him, 'Capital, you excellent and trusty servant! You have been trusty in charge of a small sum: I will put you in charge of a large sum. Come and share your master's feast.'

Tell me, if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, will he not leave the ninety-nine sheep on the hills and go in search of the one that has strayed?

Now when evening came the master of the vineyard said to his bailiff, 'Summon the labourers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last and going on to the first.'

Now where is the trusty and thoughtful servant, whom his lord and master has set over his household to assign them their supplies at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant if his lord and master finds him so doing when he arrives!

But if the bad servant says to himself, 'My lord and master is long of coming,'

that servant's lord and master will arrive on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know;

But the servant who had got the two hundred and fifty pounds went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

Now a long time afterwards the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them.

His master said to him in reply, 'You rascal, you idle servant! You knew, did you, that I reap where I have never sowed and gather where I have never winnowed!