Greed and the Three Loaves of Bread

Prophet ^Isa (Jesus), peace be upon him, is an honorable Prophet. At his time, the people wanted to accompany him because of the blessings and to take advantage of the goodness that he had. One day, Prophet Jesus was walking with a man. They reached a riverbank. They sat to eat some bread as they had three loaves of bread with them. They ate two an…d one loaf was left. Prophet Jesus got up to drink water and when he returned he found the third and last loaf of bread missing. Prophet Jesus asked the man who was with him about the loaf. The man said he did not know anything about it.

So they set out walking again. They reached the edge of the forest. They saw a deer with her two baby fawns. Prophet Jesus pointed to one of the fawns and it came running towards him. He slaughtered it then cooked it. They ate from it. When they were finished Prophet Jesus collected the bones and said, ”Get up by the will of Allah.” The fawn came back to life by the will of Allah just as it had been before and went back to its mother.

Prophet Jesus turned to the man and said, ”I ask you by Allah, the One who enabled you to see this miracle, who took the third loaf of bread?” The man again replied, ”I don’t know.” The man and Prophet Jesus started walking again. When they reached a deserted area they sat down. Prophet Jesus gathered some soil in his honorable hands. He said, ”By the will of Allah turn into gold.” And sure enough the soil became gold.

Prophet Jesus divided the gold into three parts. He said to the man, “One third is mine, one third is yours, and the other third is for the man who took the loaf of bread.”

The man’s eyes gleamed and he said, “I took the other loaf of bread.”

Prophet Jesus said, “Take all the gold, it is all yours.” And then Prophet Jesus walked away. The man sat there delighted with the riches he acquired.

Within a few minutes, two thieves appeared. They wanted to kill the man and take away his gold. The man said, “Why should you kill me? Let us split the gold between the three of us.” The thieves agreed. Since they were hungry, they decided to send one of them to get food from the village.

On the way to get the food, the man thought to himself, “Why should I split the money with the other two?” The devil then whispered to him an evil plot. When he got the food he put some poison in it. He thought, “When the other two men eat from the food they will die. That way I can take all the gold for myself.” At the same time he was coming up with his plan, the other two men decided that they would kill him when he came back. That way they would only have to split the gold between the two of them.

When the man returned with the food, the other two men were waiting for him. They killed him. He fell to the ground, dead. The two men started eating the food that he had brought and since it was poisoned, they also died. Three dead bodies were left lying around a pile of gold.

Prophet Jesus and a group of his companions passed by this strange sight and Allah gave Prophet Jesus the knowledge of what happened. He warned his companions saying: