16
"So the first came and said, "`Sir, your pound has produced ten pounds more.'
17
"`Well done, good servant,' he replied; `because you have been faithful in a very small matter, be in authority over ten towns.'
18
"The second came, and said, "`Your pound, Sir, has produced five pounds.'
19
"So he said to this one also, "`And you, be the governor of five towns.'
20
"The next came. "`Sir,' he said, `here is your pound, which I have kept wrapt up in a cloth.
21
For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man: you take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow.'
22
"`By your own words,' he replied, `I will judge you, you bad servant. You knew me to be a severe man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow:
23
why then did you not put my money into a bank, that when I came I might have received it back with interest?
24
"And he said to those who stood by, "`Take the pound from him and give it to him who has the ten pounds.'
25
("They said to him, "`Sir, he already has ten pounds.')
26
"`I tell you that to every one who has anything, more shall be given; and from him who has not anything, even what he has shall be taken away.