Going one morning to the home of the knight Don Antonio Zavan, St. John of God was soon assailed by a group of poor people, and was excessively harassed by one of them, who was more demanding than the others. He distributed a real to each of them; but the insolent one, who claimed to have more, burst into insults against the Saint, calling him a thief of the money he received for the poor. And he went so far as to give him a blow, because he knew that this excess was a means of making him more generous. But the other poor people threw themselves on this wretch, and the housemen even ran to arrest him. John, defending his assailant, had great difficulty in freeing him. Nevertheless, he succeeded, and thanks to him, the culprit was able to run away. The knight, who had seen everything, went down to the courtyard to meet the Saint; he showed him, by embracing him, his regrets that such an outrage had happened in his own house, and kept him at dinner.