What a year had bought him

Umar had a practice of following up on the governors he appointed, wanting to know what a year in office had done to them.

He sent someone to find out what Umayr ibn Sa'd had gathered since taking up Homs.

The report that came back described a man who owned almost nothing: a bowl to eat from, the one garment he was wearing, and little else. His pay, it was said, went out again almost as fast as it came in, to those who needed it more.

When this was reported to Umar, he is said to have wept, and to have said, in substance, that this was the kind of governor he had wanted — one that authority had not changed at all.

He sent Umayr a sum of money. Umayr took it and gave it away, the same as everything else that had passed through his hands in office.

The sources vary in exactly how they describe the inspection and its findings, but agree on the substance: a year of governing Homs had made no difference at all to how little Umayr owned.