Brother John Buchan, Thanks for your comment and questions. Though steward knows what is the amount of debt he asks the debtors how much they owe because steward wanted to make them realize how much he was favoring them. One who owed a hundred measures of oil or wheat was discharged on payment of fifty or eighty respectively. He asks the debtors to emphasize how much their burden was made light. secondly , the parable does not speak of future employment of steward. it only speaks of homes should be opened to him immediately after when he was put out of stewardship Luke 16:4 Lord encourages his stewards to be faithful in whatever He gives in to our hands 1 Cor 4: 2. Powerful and terrible lesson is, that conduct in this life conditions our experience in the life to come.

Brother Talasila, thanks very much, that is very reasonable. But I'm still troubled about why the steward would think a future employer would want to hire a dishonest steward. (In the US we have a saying, "If you will steal for me, then you will likely steal from me.") Are you open to an unorthodox idea? That the steward was "accused of being wasteful," but Jesus was also accused by Pharisees of wasting time with sinners. The steward, who knew their debts, asked the debtors to honestly report the extent of their debts. Does that remind us of Jesus, who knows our sins, asking us to sincerely confess our sins? Jesus knows that we can't pay God back for all of our sins. Could it have been that this steward knew that for some reason, such as bad crops due to bad weather, that the debtors couldn’t pay their debts in full? In that situation, was getting partial payment from sincere debtors the best resolution the master could have hoped for? In verse 8, could the master commending the steward indicate the God was pleased with the way Jesus carried out his ministry of reconciling sincere sinners (while being called “unrighteous” by unrighteous Pharisees)?