Abba Zenon told us how once when he was going to Palestine, getting very tired because of his journeying, he sat down to rest under a tree next to a field full of cucumbers. He began to think about getting up and going to steal some of the cucumbers to eat. “After all”, he thought, “I won’t have to pick very much”. But his thoughts went on, “When thieves are taken by the judges they are subjected to torture. So let me find out whether I can bear the sort of torture that thieves are given.”
He got up immediately and stood in the sun for five days till his body was dehydrated and he said to himself, “I can’t stand this torture, so therefore I had better not commit theft but rather busy myself in manual labour as usual and, as the Psalms say, be content with that. “You shall eat the labour of your hands and you will be blessed and happy” (Psalms 128.2), as we sing daily in the sight of the Lord.
