Epictetus' Lamp
What a thief can teach us about envy and desire
“We should keep in mind three things that are to be avoided, as the old proverb says: hatred, envy, and contempt.”
-Seneca, Moral Letter 14
It is so easy today to fall into the trap of comparison. Society thrives on this and the internet and our interconnected nature makes it all the more easier for us to see what others have and what we do not.
When we see things we want but do not have, it is easy to become envious of others, to have contempt or even hatred for them. But there are also ways to rid ourselves of these dangerous thoughts.
The Stoics understood that it is the value we apply to what others have wherein these desires manifest from. Society attempts to tell us that we need what our neighbors have but these are just stories.
Held within the first book of Epictetus’ Discourses is a small story involving the theft of Epictetus’ lamp.
“I had an iron lamp which I keep by my household shrine. I heard a noise from the window, ran down, and found it stolen. I reasoned that the thief had an irresistible impulse to steal it. I said to myself, ‘Tomorrow get a cheaper, earthenware lamp.’ You can only lose what you have.”
To Epictetus, the lamp was just a lamp. It had more value to the thief than it did himself. To Epictetus, the thief actually did more harm to himself than anyone else.
“He acquired the lamp at a price: he became a thief for its sake, for its sake, he lost his ability to be trusted, for a lamp he became a brute. And he imagined he came out ahead.”
As Epictetus demonstrates, the lamp can be replaced. The value of the lamp to Epictetus was inconsequential. However, the trust that was broken between the thief and Epictetus is worth much more than the lamp.
“It is not things themselves that trouble people, but their opinions about things,” Epictetus would say.
It is not the theft of the lamp that was the worst part but the fact that the thief applied that much value to the lamp that he would steal it in the first place. By doing so, he not only destroyed trust with Epictetus, he also destroyed his own character. And according to Epictetus:
“The essence of good and evil consists in the condition of our character.”