16Jesus told his disciples another story. He said, “There was a rich man who had a manager. Some said that the manager was wasting what the rich man owned. ²So the rich man told him to come in. He asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Tell me exactly how you have handled what I own. You can’t be my manager any longer.’

³“The manager said to himself, ‘What will I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig. And I’m too ashamed to beg. ⁴I know what I’m going to do. I’ll do something so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

⁵“So he called in each person who owed his master something. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶“ ‘I owe 800 gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill. Sit down quickly and change it to 400 gallons.’

⁷“Then he asked the second one, ‘And how much do you owe?’

“ ‘I owe 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill and change it to 800 bushels.’

⁸“The manager had not been honest. But the master praised him for being clever. The people of this world are clever in dealing with those who are like themselves. They are more clever than God’s people.

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