An hour passed, as Yuhanna shared in the bodily pain of the God-man and was glorified with him in spirit, until midday, when he rose from his place and glanced around him in search of his calves. He did not see them. He walked around, looking in every direction, bewildered at their disappearance from that flat meadow. He reached the road that meandered between the fields like the lines of one’s palm, and descried in the distance a man in black attire standing among the gardens. He hastened toward him, and recognized him, when he drew near, as one of the monks of the monastery.

He greeted him with a nod of his head and asked, “Have you seen calves wandering among these gardens, father?”

The monk looked at him, striving to conceal his exasperation, and replied maliciously, “Yes, I saw them. They are over there—come and I’ll show you.”

Yuhanna followed the monk until they reached the monastery, where he spied the calves in a huge corral, hobbled with ropes and guarded by one of the monks, who beat them with a stick whenever they moved. When Yuhanna made as if to lead them away, the monk seized him by his woolen wrap, then turned toward the living quarters of the monastery and shouted, “Here’s the delinquent herder—I’ve detained him!”

Priests and monks came running from every direction, their abbot at their head. He stood out from his colleagues by virtue of the fineness of his clothing and his sour mien. They surrounded Yuhanna like soldiers competing for their prey. Yuhanna looked at their leader and said quietly, “What have I done, to be called a delinquent, and why have you grabbed hold of me?”

The abbot replied, his anger imbuing his face with cruelty, in a coarse voice resembling nothing so much as the screeching of a saw, “You pastured your calves in the monastery’s standing crop, and they chewed the leaves of its vineyards. We have detained you because the herder is responsible for the damage caused by his animals.”

Yuhanna beseeched them, “They are beasts lacking in reason, father, and I am a poor man possessing nothing but my strong right arm and these calves. Let me lead them away, and I promise you that I will never again return to these meadows.”

The superior, having taken a step forward, lifted his hands to the heavens and said, “Verily, God has placed us here and made us stewards of these lands of his chosen one, the mighty Elisha. We safeguard them day and night with all our power, for they are sacred—they are like fire that consumes all who approach them. Were you to be unable to settle your account with the monastery, what your calves have eaten would turn to poison in their stomachs. But there is no question of your defaulting, as we shall keep your animals in our corral until you pay the last penny.”

The abbot made as if to go, but Yuhanna stopped him, imploring him abjectly, “I beg you, my lord, by these holy days wherein Jesus suffered and Mary wept for our sorrows, to let me take away my calves. Do not be hardhearted toward me, for I am poor and destitute and the monastery is rich and glorious, and it will overlook my negligence and have compassion on the advanced age of my father.”