Story 9

A brave and generous man was badly wounded in the war with the Tatars. Someone told him: a certain merchant has a healing remedy; if you ask, he might not refuse you. But that merchant was famous for his stinginess. If the sun itself lay on his table instead of bread, no one on earth would ever see the light of day again. The wounded man said: if I ask, he may give the remedy or refuse it; and if he gives it, it may help or it may not. Either way, asking anything of him is a killing poison. Whatever you beg from base men, laid under obligation, you may add to your body, but you drain your soul. The wise have said: even if they sold the water of life for the price of your dignity, no wise person would buy it, for an honorable death is better than a life of humiliation. To eat bitter fruit from the hand of a kind man is better than sweets from the hand of one whose face is sour.