The unhappy governor, appalled at the prospect, fell on his knees and pleaded for time to pay. “Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything” (RSV, Matthew 18: 26). Whereupon the King, in whose hands alone rested the debtor’s fate, not only cancelled his order to sell the man and all that he had – which was what the man was pleading for – but went far beyond the debtor’s most frantic hopes. He actually cancelled the debt in its entirety and released him. And so the man, without any deserving at all on his part, found that he was now a free man who did not owe a penny.