Quomodo fur, eo inspiciente, thesauros ejus furatus sit.
The Thief and the Watching King
While the king lies awake, a thief steals from an unguarded royal chest three times, and on the third attempt the king quietly warns him to flee before the chamberlain discovers him.
The king was resting on a couch at one point to relax, but a stray thought, as tends to happen, had kept sleep at bay. The sacristan approached the chest where the royal bronze money was kept, and for the moment, as he saw fit, he either removed something or put something back. Then, forgetting to close the chest, he left, intending to come back to a task he had planned for later. A poor boy who was working at the tables, gathering up the dishes as is said, noticed this, and going up to the chest, he tucked a handful of coins into the fold of his robe and left, putting them for the time being where he thought they'd be safe. When he came back, with the king watching, he did it again. When he tried a third time, the king perceived, I believe, in the spirit that the treasures had a guardian present, and wanting to warn the thief of the danger, he said, "You're acting recklessly, boy. If you trust me, take what you have and run, because, by the Mother of the Lord, if Hugelinus comes — that was the royal chamberlain's name — he won't leave you a single coin." The boy fled, neither betrayed by the king nor pursued.
Mercy Over Judgment
After the theft is discovered, the king feigns ignorance, then gently dismisses the loss, praising the thief's need and commending the matter to God's healing care before returning to the narrative.
The thief had already made off with his foot, and now the servant, coming back and finding the royal treasures plundered, stood stunned; pallor spread across his face, trembling seized his body. Outcry and sighs revealed the distress of his heart and the fury of his mind. The king gets up and, as though he doesn't know what has happened, asks the reason for this commotion. When he had learned this from the chamberlain, he said: "Be quiet. Perhaps the one who took more than these needed it more than we did. Let him keep it for himself; what's left is enough for us." I ask: what is more perfect than this king, what more simple in this clear eye? What could be more gentle than such a mind — one who saw his own being stolen and stayed silent, and even looked out for the thief's well-being? Let each person receive as he wills. For the One who enlightened the blind, who healed the lame, who rescued many from grievous illness — I judge that this must be set aside for his simplicity and patience.✦1 Now, these things having been introduced — not pointlessly, I think — let us return to the thread of the narrative.
Read the original Latin
Recumbebat aliquando lectulo rex gratia quiescendi; sed aliqua, ut fieri solet, cogitatio somnum suspenderat. Accessit ad thecam aedituus in qua aes regium servabatur, et aliquid pro tempore sicut ei videbatur aut sustulit aut reposuit. Deinde arcam oblitus claudere, quidpiam operis alias facturus egreditur. Animadvertit hoc puer pauperculus qui, ut dicitur, ad mensas scutellis recolligendis operam daret, et ad thecam accedens, haustum non parvum numismatum numerum in sinu recondit, et exiens, quo tutum interim arbitrabatur reposuit. Reversus denuo, rege inspectante facinus, iteravit. Quod cum tertio attentasset, cernens, ut credo, rex in spiritu jamjamque thesaurorum adesse custodem, et furis volens cavere periculum: «Importune, inquit, agis, o puer. Si mihi credis, tolle quod habes et fuge, quoniam, per Matrem Domini, si venerit Hugelinus (hoc enim erat regii cubicularii nomen), nec unum tibi nummum relinquet.» Fugit puer, nec a rege proditus nec fugatus.
Jam pedem fur extulerat, et ecce minister rediens et thesauros regios reperiens compilatos obstupuit; pallor vultum, tremor corpus invasit. Angustiam cordis et furorem mentis clamor et suspiria prodiderunt. Surgit rex, et quasi nesciens quid acciderit, causam perturbationis hujus inquirit. Quam cum a camerario didicisset: «Tace, inquit; forte ille qui cepit plus his nobis indiguit; habeat sibi, nobis sufficit quod remansit.» Rogo, quid hoc rege perfectius, quid hoc simplicius oculo? quid tali mente lenius, qui sua furari vidit et tacuit, insuper furi consuluit ad salutem? Ut volet quisque accipiat, ego quod caecos illuminavit, quod curavit claudos, quod ab adversa valitudine multos eripuit, huic ejus simplicitati et patientiae aestimo postponendum. His, ut aestimo, non inutiliter insertis, ad narrationis ordinem redeamus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.11.5;Luke.7.22 — the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. Luke.7.22 — And he answered them, 'Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them.'
Notes
- 1 ↩The relative pronouns (quod...quod...quod) refer to God/Christ, not to the king. Rendered as 'the One who' to make the theological reference clear. The final clause is compressed: aestimo postponendum [esse] — 'I judge [it] must be postponed/deferred to' his simplicity and patience.
Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris companion
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