The words of Cleanthes11 are even stronger. “Granted,” he says, “that what the man received was not a benefit, yet he himself is an ingrate because, even if he had received a benefit, he would not have returned it.” So, a man becomes a brigand even before he stains his hands with blood, because he has armed himself to kill, and possesses the desire to murder and rob; he practices and manifests wickedness in action, but it does not begin there. Men are punished for sacrilege, but no man’s hands can actually reach the gods.
“How,” it is asked, “can anyone be ungrateful to a bad man, since a bad man is unable to give a benefit?” For the reason, of course, that, while the gift that was received was not a benefit, it was called one. If anyone receives from a bad man any of these things that the ignorant12 possess, of which even the bad have a store, it will be his duty to be grateful with a like offering, and, no matter what may be the nature of the gifts, to return them as true goods since he received them as true goods. A man is said to be in debt13 whether he owes pieces of gold or pieces of leather stamped with the seal of the state, such as the Lacedaemonians used, which serve the purpose of coined money. Discharge your indebtedness in that kind by which you incurred it. What benefits are, whether so great and noble a term should be degraded by being applied to such mean and vulgar matter, does not concern you; your search for truth is to the detriment of others. Do you adjust your minds to the semblance of truth, and, while you are learning true virtue, honor whatever vaunts the name of virtue.