There was an anchorite in the vicinity of the holy Jordan; his name was Theodore. He came to my cell and said to me: “Do me a favour, Abba John: find me a book containing all the New Testament”. I made enquiries and found that Abba Peter – who later became bishop of Chalcedon – had such a book. Thus went to speak to him and he showed me (a book made) of beautiful parchment. I asked him how much it cost and he told me three solidi. Then he asked: “Do you want to buy it yourself, or for another person?” and I answered: “Believe me, father, it is a hermit who wants it”. So Abba Peter said to me: “If a hermit wants it, take it to him as a gift. Here also are three solidi, and if he likes the book, he can have it; if he does not like it, you buy him such a book as he wishes”. So I took the lot and brought it to the hermit. He accepted the book and went back into the desert. After two months, the hermit came back to my cell and said: “You know, Abba John, I am troubled by the thought of having got this book as a gift”. I said to him: “Do not feel troubled: Abba Peter is wealthy and an excellent man, and is delighted with the opportunity (of doing a good deed)”. But the hermit replied: “I will not rest until I give him the rightful price”. I asked: “Have you got the money to pay it?” “Not yet, “he said,” but give me a sack to wear” – for he was naked. So I gave him a sack and an old wrap and he went away, and found a job in the works of the reservoir that the patriarch of Jerusalem, John, was building in the Sinai <Old Latin version: “the Sigma-shaped reservoir, that the patriarch of Jerusalem was building”>. He received five folles a day and he used to come near my place, in the Laura of the Aeliotes; he ate only ten lupines a day and worked all day long. When he had made the equivalent of three solidi in small pieces from his salary, he said to me: “Take this change and give it to the man; or if he does not want it, give him back the book”. So I went to Abba Peter and repeated these-words to him. He did not want to accept either the money or the book: all the same, I made him take the money, in order not to reject the toil and trouble of the anchorite. So he took it, and I went back and gave the book to the anchorite, and he went back into the desert with a happy heart.
(transl. Leah Di Segni)