9 That night I washed myself and went into my courtyard and fell asleep alongside the courtyard wall, with my face uncovered because of the heat.
10 I didn’t know that there were sparrows in the wall above me, and their warm droppings fell into my eyes, forming white spots. I went to doctors to be healed, but the more they applied their medicines on me, the worse the white spots became until I was completely blinded. I couldn’t see with my eyes for four years. All my relatives felt sorry for me, and Ahikar took care of me for two years until he went to Elymais.
11 At that time my wife Anna made a living by weaving cloth out of wool.
12 She would send the cloth to the wool suppliers, and they would pay her for it. On the seventh day of Dystrus, she finished a piece on the loom for her employers. They gave her the full wages, along with a young goat from their herd for her home.
13 When it approached me, the kid began to bleat. So I called to Anna and said, "Where does this goat come from? It isn’t stolen, is it? Return it to its owners, for we have no right to eat anything that is stolen!"
14 But she said to me, "It was given to me as a bonus in addition to my pay." I didn’t believe her and demanded that she return it to the owners. I grew red with anger at her. But she replied and said to me, "And what’s become of your charitable donations? What’s become of your righteous deeds? You have a reputation for that sort of thing, don’t you?!"