Abba Sabbatius used to tell (this story):
When I resided in the Laura of Abba Firminus, a robber came to Abba Zosimus the Cilician and appealed to him in these words: “Do me a favour for God’s sake, for I am responsible for many deaths: make me a monk, so that in future I can rest from my crimes”. The old man admonished him, then made him a monk and even gave him the holy habit. However, after a few days the holy man said (to the former robber): “Believe me, my son, you cannot stay here for if the governor hears of this, he will have you arrested; and likewise, your enemies will come and kill you. So listen to my advice, and I shall take you away to a coenobium far from here”. So he took (the former robber) to the coenobium of Abba Dorotheus, near Gaza and Maiuma. He spent nine years there, and learned the Psaltery and all the monastic rules, then he went back to Firminus’ (monastery) to the old man, and said to him: “Sir Abba, do me a mercy, give me my clothes, the secular ones, and take back the monastic habit”. The old man, much pained, asked him: “Why, my son?” and he answered: “Look, father, I have been in the coenobium for nine years, as you know, and I have fasted and practiced asceticism as much as I could, and I have lived submissively in complete seclusion and in fear of God. I know that His goodness has forgiven my many crimes, but nevertheless, I always see a child who says to me: Why did you kill me? I see him in my dreams, in church and in the refectory, always saying these words and never giving me an hour of peace. For this reason, father, I want to go away, to die for that child, because I killed the little one without cause”. So he took his own clothes and went out of the laura wearing them, and made for Diospolis, and the next day he was arrested and beheaded.
(transl. Leah Di Segni)