A heavy sack of sand drags across the dry desert floor.

Abba Moses is late to the judgment. The other monks wait in a circle with their moral superiority ready to expel a brother who stumbled. They expect Moses, the former bandit, to lead the condemnation. Instead, they see a trail of sand leaking from a hole in the bag slung over his shoulder.

"My sins are running out behind me, and I do not see them," he says. "And today I come to judge the errors of another."