14 [ref]“It’s like a man who was leaving on a trip. He called his slaves and shared his savings among them for them to manage. 15 He gave five bags of silver[fn] to one, two bags to another, and one to the other, each according to his ability, and then he departed. 16 In his absence, the one with five bags of silver used it for trading and gained five more bags. 17 Similar, the one with two bags gained two more bags. 18 But the one who received the one bag, he went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s silver.

19 “Eventually the master of those slaves returned, and he called them in to settle up their accounts. 20 The slave who’d received five bags of silver approached, also bringing the other five bags, and said, ‘Master, you entrusted me with five bags, and look, I gained another five.’ 21 ‘Well done, good and faithful slave,’ said the master. ‘You were faithful over a few things, so I’ll put you in charge of a lot more things. Come and join your master in celebrating.’ 22 The slave who’d received two bags approached and said, ‘Master, you entrusted me with two bags of silver. Look, I gained another two.’ 23 ‘Well done, good and faithful slave,’ said the master. ‘You were faithful over a few things, so I’ll put you in charge of a lot more things. Come and join your master in celebrating.’ 24 Then the slave with one bag of silver also approached and said, ‘Master, I knew that you’d are hard man, harvesting where you didn’t plant, and gathering where you didn’t spread seed. 25 So because I was afraid, I went and hid your silver in the ground. So look, here’s all of it back.’ 26 ‘You evil and lazy slave,’ his master answered. ‘You know that I harvest where I didn’t plant and gather where I didn’t spread seed 27 so you should have at least invested my silver with the bankers and then I could have gotten it back with some interest. 28 Therefore take the bag of silver off him and give it to the one with ten bags 29 [ref]because everyone who has will be given more and will have plenty, but anyone who doesn’t have, even what they do have will be taken away from them. 30 [ref]So throw that useless slave out into the darkness where there’ll be crying and great anguish.