Corruption and Shrewdness

This parable is really a surprise!

There was once a rich man who had a servant who managed his property.  The rich man was told that the manager was wasting his master's money, so he called him in and said, 'What is this I hear about you?  Turn in a complete account of my property, because you cannot be my manager any longer.'  The servant said to himself, 'My master is going to dismiss me from my job.  What shall I do?  I am not strong enough to dig ditches and I am ashamed to beg.  Now I know what I will do! Then when my job is gone, I shall have friends who will welcome me in their homes.'

So he called in all the people who were in debt to his master.  He asked the first one, 'How much do you owe my master?' One hundred barrels of olive oil,' he answered. 'Here is your account, the manager told him; 'sit down and write fifty.' Then he asked another one,  'And you - how much do you owe?'  'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he answered. 'Here is your account,' the manager told him; 'write eight hundred.'

As a result the master of this dishonest manager praised him for doing such a shrewd thing; because the people of this world are much more shrewd in handling their affairs than the people who belong to the light."  Luke 16:1-8.

What! Praise the dishonest manager? Okay, okay, praise his shrewdness, then sack him after that! After all, the master had already told him 'you cannot be my manager any longer'.

Now, 2000 years ago, people were already so corrupted and shrewd. Today, people are more so.  Be careful.

However this is not the lesson behind this parable.  Read Luke 16:9 for the real lesson.