Among the picturesque figures of the Fathers of the Desert this Moses stands out like a silhouette against the white glare of the desert of Scete. In his youth he was a slave in the household of an official of the Egyptian government but was dismissed because of the flagrant immorality of his life, but more particularly because he was an inveterate thief and this of course would be harder on his master's purse and property than any spare-time debauchery.