—“By my life, walking would have been easier for me than dying, and you did this only because of your age-old enmity. What grieves me is that we shall die and be buried together in a single grave, and then some priest will pass by and pray over us both.”

The Jew protested, “Woe to you! Why should it trouble you if we are buried together and whoever passes by offers prayers for us?”

The Christian replied, “Because you have killed yourself and your companion; such a person does not deserve to have prayers said over him.”

While the two of them were breathing their last, a man came along on foot, driving a donkey that carried two waterskins. When they saw him, they hurried toward him and pleaded, “For God’s sake, count it charity to let us drink a mouthful of water—may God grant you well-being!”

He answered, “This is a road where no water is handed out for charity.”

They asked him, “Tell us, what is your religion?”

He said, “My religion is the same as yours.”

They replied, “One of us is a Jew and the other a Christian.”

He responded, “Whether Jew, Christian, or Muslim—if a person fails to act on what is in his Scripture and instead relies, in heedless complacency, on hope and greed, he will end up just as you have.” With that, he turned away and did not give them any water.

They said, “That man is truly resolute.”

He retorted, “How little my resolve will benefit you—or anyone who neglects to take firm precautions and leans instead on idle hope and craving. A rational person ought to exercise the same prudence about his afterlife that he shows in his worldly affairs, and he must not rely on hope and greed for forgiveness and mercy while failing to do what he has been commanded and to refrain from what he has been forbidden.”