“Again, they also used to say the following about the same Old Man. Once he went to the market place in order to purchase some clothing for himself. And he bought it. Having given a piece of gold, he still had to pay some small change. So he took the clothing and placed it beneath him. While he was counting out the coins on the counter, someone came along and wanted to steal the clothing. The Old Man perceived this and understood what was happening. Yet, since he had a merciful and compassionate heart, he lifted himself up gradually, supposedly pretending to reach out over the counter in order to pay the coins. In this way, the other person was able to steal the clothing and departed. The Old Man, however, did not rebuke him.
And the blessed Abba Zosimas would conclude: How expensive were the clothing and the vessels, which the Old Man had lost? Yet his great will power revealed that he possessed these material things without any attachment to them. He neglected the fact that they had been stolen, and simply remained the same person; he was neither saddened nor troubled. For as I always like to say: It is not possessing something that is harmful, but being attached to it. Even if this Old Man possessed the whole world, he would have done so without being attached to it. From his actions, he proved that he was free from everything.”
Abba Zosimas as cited by John Chryssavgis in In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, Inc.) 149.