The Parable of the Talents: What You Do with What You're Given

A man about to go on a journey calls his servants and entrusts his property to them. To one he gives five talents — an enormous sum, perhaps fifteen years of a laborer's wages. To another, two talents. To another, one talent. Each according to his own ability. Then he departs.

The one with five talents goes immediately and trades, earning five more. The one with two talents does the same, earning two more. The one with one talent digs a hole in the ground and hides his master's money.

After a long time, the master returns. The one with five talents presents him ten. The master says: Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. The one with two talents presents four. The same response: well done, enter into the joy.

Then the servant with one talent: Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.

The master responds: You wicked and slothful servant. He could at least have put the money on deposit with the bankers to earn interest. The talent is taken from him and given to the one who has ten. And then the verse that has disturbed readers ever since: For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

The servant's mistake was not simply caution but a wrong understanding of his master — a hard man, a demanding man, a man who takes what he did not earn. The fearful servant projected miserliness onto a master who had given lavishly. He was afraid, so he played it safe. Safety, in this parable, is its own kind of unfaithfulness.