1. When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you,
2. and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.
3. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.
4. Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness.
5. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
6. Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies;
7. for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.