_ 27 _ city and whom you consider are under obligation to make restitution, but who are unable to repay the owners, either because they are dead or because their whereabouts are unknown, or because restitution is impossible to the true owners, to give everything to the Holy House of Mercy. Do this, even though poor people present themselves on whom it would appear the alms would be better employed, because among the poor there are many frauds and people who are involved in vices and sins. Such persons are well known to the Brotherhood of Mercy. The alms that would have been given to these, donate to the Holy House of Mercy and it will spend the money on the more necessitous and better-known poor. There are many reasons for this. So, if a lot of people approach you, requesting temporal rather than spiritual things, they would get the impression that you could help them with handouts. Let those who know you, consider that in this matter you can only help them in spiritual things. Moreover, it would be better to hand over all the alms to the Holy House of Mercy and avoid the embarrassment of people being suspicious and scandalized that you receive alms and money from which you yourself could profit. This is
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