Chapter LIV. How he gave a cloak to another poor person

87. Another time, when S. Francis was returning from Siena, he met a poor man, and said to his companion: "Brother, we must give this cloak back to the poor man to whom it belongs, for we have borrowed it until we should happen to meet some one poorer than ourselves". His companion, bearing in mind the tender father's necessity, persisted in opposing him, so that he might not provide for another by neglecting himself. But the holy man said: u I will not be a thief; it would be reckoned to us as theft if we gave not to one in greater need". So the other said no more, and S. Francis handed the cloak [to the stranger].