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When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you,
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and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite.
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1Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.
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2Do not toil to acquire wealth; 3be discerning enough to desist.
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When your eyes light on it, it is gone, 4for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.
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5Do not eat the bread of a man who is 6stingy; 7do not desire his delicacies,
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for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his 8heart is not with you.
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You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.
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Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.
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9Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless,