It was said of Abba John the Persian that when some evildoers came to him, he took a basin and wanted to wash their feet. But they were filled with confusion, and began to do penance.
The hermit steadfastly refused to play the role of victim in this event. The story doesn't tell us what the evildoers wanted, although banditry was the most common occurrence recorded by the desert fathers, which include stories of hermits helping burglars to pack up the goods of their own cell, or giving an appraisal of a book which had been stolen from them.
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