Spilling Sand

A brother at Scetis committed a fault.  A council was called to which Abba Moses was invited, but he refused to go.  

The brothers decided to send for Abba Moses with the message, "Come, Abba, for everyone is waiting for you."  So Moses went with his brother, taking a basket with a hole in it that he filled with sand.  Carrying the basket on his shoulders, the sand spilled out behind him.

The other monks came out to meet him and said, "What is this, Father?" 

The old man replied:  "My sins run out behind me and I do not see them.  Yet today I am coming to judge the faults of another."  

When they heard these words, they said no more to the offending brother but forgave him.