A study of the social relations implied in the parable of the talents/pounds viewed in its narrative world. The study indicates that this parable is the product of imaginations socialized in the dynamics of an agrarian society, in contrast to those of the capitalist West. Key components of the world of the narrative include limited good, use-value, and exchange-value. The parable appears to be a warning not to those lacking adventurousness or industry, as frequently assumed in the West, but to those who mistreat the pocr.