"There was once a man who had two sons;
and the younger said to his father,
'Father, give me my share of the property.'
So he divided his estate between them.
"A few days later the younger son
turned the whole of his share into cash
and left home for a distant country,
where he squandered it in reckless living."
"He had spent it all,
when a severe famine fell upon that country
and he began to feel the pinch.
So he went and attached himself
to one of the local landowners,
who sent him on to his farm to mind the pigs.
"He would have been glad to fill his belly
with the pods that the pigs were eating;
and no one gave him anything.
"Then he came to his senses and said,
'How many of my father's paid servants
have more food than they can eat,
and here am I, starving to death!
"'I will set off and go to my father,
and say to him,
"Father, I have sinned, against God
and against you;
I am no longer lit to be called your son;
treat me as one of your paid servants."
So he set out for his father's house.
"But while he was still a long
way off his father saw him,
and his heart went out to him.
He ran to meet him, flung his arms round him,
and kissed him.
"The son said, 'Father, I have sinned,
against God and against you;
I am no longer lit to be called your son.'
"But the father said to his servants,
'Quick! fetch a robe, my best one,
and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet.
Bring the fatted calf and kill it,
and let us have a feast to celebrate the day.
For this son of mine was dead and
has come back to life;
he was lost and is found.'
"And the festivities began."
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