A Parable Of An Unprofitable Gamestar
A certain bookie needed a sudden "vacation." So he gethered his three main henchmen and distributed his working capital (about $480K) among them according to their talents. To the first he gave $300,000, the second was given $120,000, and the third was given what was left over, about $60,000, The first two set about to double their boss' money as quickly as possible and both succeeded.
Now the reason that number three was number three was, to tell the truth, that his heart wasn't in his work. He did not like to take poor people's money or threaten them when they got into debt. He had a bit of what migfht be called a conscience and had recently heard of something called "right livelihood" which suggests that occupations which exploit and harm others are ignoble. He had already decided to quit the rackets and find an ordinary job. He felt his boss' money was tainted and that it would be wrong to use it to make more. So he distributed the money among his most distressed clients accorder to the level of their distress and left town to make a new life for himself in a distant place.
When the bookie was able to return he called his men to his office to get an accounting. He found that the first two had indeed doubled his money. "Well done, guys," he said. "you did me good, enjoy my enjoyment with me. Then he was told that the third man had skipped. This bookie was a man who did not take any shit off anyone less powerful than himself and he was going to get an accounting one way or another!
Finally the unprofitable henchman was located, holed up in a monastery in a distant State where he kept house and did odd jobs for the monks. He was dragged before his boss where he confessed that he no longer had the money that had been intrusted to him.
The bookie said, "You could at least have loaned the money and got the usual usury. I am a ruthless man who takes what and where he can; I take advantage of others, they don't take advantage of me. You will be cast into darkness where you will not even be able to gnash your teeth for i will have them smashed out of your mouth.
And the unprofitable servant smiled.
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About ten years ago, the priest at the church i attended, had to read the Parable of the Talents as part of the liturgy. In the homily, he said he was going to treat the parable as the Mennonites treat it. In the first place, the rich man in the story is not a symbol for God, he is a symbol for the devil. When i start with that assumption it becomes a very different story. Two of the "servants" do the devil's work very well, the third does it very poorly.
I have concluded that the unprofitable servant is a mystic. He does not know what God wants, but he is no longer willing to do the devil's work.