Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.

If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!

But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’

But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.

And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

Unworthy Servants

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’?

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’

When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.