Three elders once came to Abba Achilles, and one of them had a bad reputation. One of the elders said to him, ‘Abba, make me a fishing net.’ He said, ‘I will not.’ Another said, ‘Do us this kindness, so that we may have something to remember you by in the monastery.’ He said, ‘I have no time.’ Then the other, the one who had the bad reputation, said to him, ‘Make me a fishing net, so that I may have something from your hands, Abba.’ He answered at once, ‘I will make one for you.’ The two elders said to him privately, ‘Why did you refuse when we asked you to make one for us, but told this man, “I will make one for you”?’ The elder said to them, ‘I told you, “I will not,” and you were not hurt, because you thought I had no time. But if I do not make one for him, he will say, “The elder heard about my sin, and because of that he did not want to make one for me”; and at once the rope between us would be cut. So I encouraged his soul, so that he would not be swallowed up by grief.’
Abba Betimes said, ‘Once, when I was going down to Scetis, some people gave me a few apples to give to the elders. I knocked at Abba Achilles’s cell to give him some. He said, “Really, brother, I would not have wanted you to knock here just now even if it were manna; and do not go to another cell either.” So I withdrew to my cell and brought the apples to the church.’
Abba Achilles once came to the cell of Abba Isaiah in Scetis and found him eating. He had put salt and water in a dish. When the elder saw that Isaiah had hidden it behind the rope, he said to him, ‘Tell me, what were you eating?’ Isaiah said, ‘Forgive me, Abba. I was cutting palm fronds and went out into the heat. I put a piece of bread with salt in my mouth, but my throat dried out from the heat and the bread would not go down. So I had to put a little water with the salt so that I could eat. But forgive me.’ The elder said, ‘Come and see Isaiah eating broth in Scetis! If you want to eat broth, go to Egypt.’
An elder came to Abba Achilles and saw him spitting blood from his mouth. He asked him, ‘What is this, Father?’ The elder said, ‘It was a word from a brother who had grieved me. I struggled not to tell him about it, and I begged God to take it away from me. The word became like blood in my mouth, and I spat it out. Then I found rest and forgot the grief.’
Abba Ammoes said, ‘Abba Betimes and I went to Abba Achilles, and we heard him meditating on this saying: “Do not be afraid, Jacob, to go down to Egypt.” He remained for a long time meditating on this saying. When we knocked, he opened to us and asked, “Where are you from?” We were afraid to say, “From the Cells,” so we said, “From the mountain of Nitria.” He said, “What can I do for you, since you have come from so far away?” and he brought us in. We saw that he had braided a great deal of rope during the night, and we asked him to say a word to us. He said, “From evening until now I have braided twenty fathoms of rope, and truly I do not need them. But I do it lest God be displeased and accuse me, saying, ‘Why did you not work when you were able to work?’ Therefore I labor and do all that I can.” We went away edified.’
Another time a great elder from the Thebaid came to Abba Achilles and said to him, ‘Abba, I am being tempted because of you.’ Achilles said, ‘Really, elder? Are you too now being tempted because of me?’ In his humility the elder said, ‘Yes, Abba.’ There was an old man sitting there by the door, blind and lame. The elder said to Achilles, ‘I wanted to stay a few days, but because of this elder I cannot stay.’ When Abba Achilles heard this, he marveled at the elder’s humility and said, ‘This is not fornication, but the envy of the evil demons.’