The Paradise/Volume 1/Book 2/Chapter 17
Chapter xvja: Of a certain Old Man who went naked
AND they used to speak of a certain solitary monk who went out unto the desert carrying his apparel on his shoulder, and having gone a journey of three days, he climbed a rock, and saw below him an old man who was grazing like the beasts, and he came down secretly and gave chase to him. And the old man was naked, and his soul had diminished to such a degree that he could not bear the smell of men, and he was able to remove himself from them and to make his escape by flight. And having taken to flight that brother pursued him, and he cried out to him and said, “I am following after thee; for God’s sake wait for me.” Then the old man answered and said unto him, “And I, for God’s sake also, am fleeing from thee”; and finally, casting away from him the garment which was on his shoulder, he pursued him with all his might. Now as soon as the old man saw that he had cast away his garments he waited for him, and when the brother came up with him the old man said,. “As thou didst cast away from thee the things of the world I waited for thee.” Then that brother entreated him, saying, “Speak to me a word [of advice] that I may be redeemed thereby”; and the old man said unto him, “Flee from the children of men, and keep silence, and thou shalt live.”