There was a certain Moses...

…a black Ethiopian, who served as houseman to some official in the administration. His master discharged him for exasperating behavior and for stealing; he was thought even to have committed murder… They say that he had been head of a robber gang, and the principal story of his stealing episodes was one in which he bore a grudge against a shepherd who one night stood between him and his objective with his dogs.

Desiring to kill the shepherd, he searched for the place where he kept the sheep. He was notified that it was across the Nile. The river was then in full flood and at least a mile across, so he put his sword between his teeth, placed his cloak on his head, plunged into the river, and swam to the other side. While he was swimming across the river, the shepherd was able to escape by burying himself in the sand. Well, Moses selected and killed four rams, tied them together with a cord, and swam back again.

He came to a small slaughtering place and skinned them. Then he ate the best part of the meat and sold the sheepskins to buy some wine. He then drank off a measure of wine, equal to eighteen Italian pints, and went off fifty miles to where he had his band. He was suddenly brought to his senses by some circumstance and he betook himself to a monastery…

Among other things, this too is told of him: Four robbers, not knowing who he was, fell upon him in his monastic cell. He tied them all together like a package, put them on his back like a bundle of straw, and took them to the church where the brethren had gathered. “Since I may not hurt anyone, what do you want me to do with these?”

The robbers confessed and knew then that he was Moses, the onetime notorious and well known robber. They glorified God and spurned the world because of his conversion. For they reasoned thus, “If he who was such a strong and powerful thief fears God, why should we put off our own salvation?”

It was said of Abba Moses the Ethiopian, that the demons attacked him, trying to draw him back into his old ways of intemperance and impurity. He was tempted to such an extent, that he nearly failed in his resolution. Then he went to the great Isidore, I mean the one in Scete, and related all the details of the contest to him.

Isidore said, “Do not be discouraged. These were the beginnings, and for this reason they were the more severe as they attacked, since they were testing your character. A dog does not by nature stay away from a meat market, but only if the market is closed up and no one gives him anything does he stop coming by. So also in your case. If you stand firm, the demon will have to leave you in discouragement.

Palladius, Historia Lausiaca 19.1 6
Abba Moses the Ethiopian, commemorated 28 August