daf bit: Bava Metzia 87

[cellio]

The talmud has been discussing feeding workers, which led to a discussion of Avraham's visit from the three men (Gen 18). It is written there that Avraham said "I will fetch a morsel of bread" -- and then he ran to the herd to choose an animal to prepare a feast with. R' Eleazar says: this teaches that the righteous promise little and perform much, while the wicked promise much and perform not even a little. How do we know the second part, about the wicked? We learn this from Efron (Gen 23). First he said "the land is worth 400 shekels", and then Avraham weighed out "400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchants", meaning that Efron refused to accept anything less than centenaria, an official currency, which is a stronger demand. (87a)

And that's on top of the fact that Efron's land was overpriced to begin with. Someone in the minyan pointed out thatR' Eleazar does not here address the fact that Efron led with offering the land as a gift, though I've seen other commentaries say that that was never sincere and would have created indebtedness had Avraham accepted.