>>40953490
>Be not avaricious, and covet not riches. Hanker not after the things that riches give, for Shai, the god who has given thee thy lot in life, and Renenit, the goddess of thy fate, know what is best for thee. Seek not for more than thou hast. Remember that if thou hast heaped up treasures which thou hast obtained by foul means, they will not remain with thee for a night, and on the following morning they will not be in thy house. Men will look at the place where they were, and most assuredly they will not find them, for they will have swallowed themselves up. [What has become of them?] Either the earth has opened its mouth and swallowed them up straightway, and they have sunk down into the deepest depth of Hell; or they have become a heap of broken fragments, which are covered by rust, or they have been mixed up with rubbish on the dust-heap; or they have made wings for themselves like the geese, and have spread them out, and flown away in the sky. Take not pleasure in stolen treasures and at the same time pretend to be grieved for the victims of the robbery.
>A man must not only avoid the laying up of treasure, but Amen-em-apt would have him avoid greed and avarice of every kind. He says: "Covet not precious metals, and hate the beautiful dancing woman." The love of these things is a tie and a fetter to a man, and "it makes a man to err in the presence of the God." And the scraping together of riches is quite futile, "for if a man scrapes off a quantity of gold from an object which is made of pure and unrefined gold, by day-break tomorrow morning it will be found to be lead."
>[Be content with thy lot.] It is better to be the beggar who is in the hand of the God than the rich man in a comfortable house. Better are bread-cakes made of flour and water with a loving heart than rich meats with bickering and enmity.