The Christian understanding of talent places this phenomenon between a gift and a purpose. Talent is not a gratuitous gift: the way to use the talent is the way to save the soul and the emergence of a sense of responsibility for talent. Nevertheless, Christian homilists know many examples of neglect of talent and pay much attention to this in their sermons. Using several sermons from different centuries as an example, we will show the development of understanding of the motives for the using and «burrowing» of talent and punishment for neglecting the gift.