Letter 118

Isidore of PelusiumUnknown|isidore pelusium
From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk
To: An unnamed recipient
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore tells the story of a righteous man who refused to benefit from another's sin.

A certain man — not only superior to shameful gain but one who distributed his own possessions to those in need — learned that the fish he had received came from someone who had committed perjury. He dared to release the man from his sin, at least as far as it concerned him, and with a great groan uttered that famous saying of Demosthenes — or at least something very like it. For he understood that profit tainted by sin is not profit at all but a curse in disguise. Better to go hungry than to eat food bought with someone else's broken oath.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.