There came three old men to the abbot Achilles and one of them was ill spoken of by the other two. One of the three said to the abbot, “Father, make me a fishing-net”; but he refused. And the second said, “Make it for us, so that we may have something to remember you by in our monastery.” And he said, “I have not time.” Then the third, he that was ill-spoken of, said to him, “Make me a net, so that I may have a blessing from your own hands, Father.” And he straightway answered him, “I shall make it for you.”
Then the first two whom he had refused asked him privately, “How was it that you would not make it for us when we asked you, and yet said to this man, ‘I shall make it for you’?” And the old man answered, “I said to you, ‘I shall not do it, because I have not time,’ and you were not grieved: but if I did not do it for this man, he would say, ‘The old man has heard about me, that I have an ill name, and for this reason he would not make the net’: and I straightway set to upon the cord soothe his spirit, lest he should be swallowed up of sadness.
