A provincial magistrate heard about Abba Moses (the Ethiopians) one day and he went to Scetis to visit him.

They told the old man. When he heard it, he got up and fled towards the marsh. Along the way, the magistrate and his entourage met him and said, "Old man, can you tell us where the cell of Abba Moses is?" He said to them, "What do you want with him? He's a fool and a heretic!" So the magistrate continued to Scetis and said to the brothers, "I heard people talking about Abba Moses and I wanted to see him, but there was an old man going into Egypt who crossed our path and we asked him where Abba Moses' cell was, and he said to us, 'What do you want with him? He's a fool and a heretic.'" When they heard this, the brothers were greatly scandalized and said, "What sort of an old man was it who dared to speak like that about the holy man?" He said, "He was an old man wearing a tattered cloak, a big black man." They said to him, "That was Abba Moses himself. He spoke like that in order not to be questioned and honored by you." And the magistrate went away greatly edified.