About this passageOne of the shortest chapters in the handbook, and among the most argued over. It applies the school's distinction between what is ours and what is merely lent to the hardest case its readers would face. Epictetus taught in the second century, when the death of a child was a common event rather than a rare one; the Stoic teachers addressed it directly rather than around it. The closing image of the traveller at an inn is the chapter's own summary.
Never say of anything, "I have lost it," but, "I have restored it." Has your child died? It is restored. Has your wife died? She is restored. Has your estate been taken away? That likewise is restored. "But it was a bad man who took it." What is it to you by whose hands he who gave it has demanded it again? While he permits you to possess it, hold it as something not your own, as do travelers at an inn.
In plainer words
Try not to say "I lost it." Say "it was given back." Your child has died — given back. Your partner has died — given back. Your money is gone — given back. You may object that the person who took it had no right to. But whose hands the return came through is a separate question from the fact that what you had was never yours to keep. You were staying at an inn. You do not own the room.
A restatement in modern English, written for this collection. The passage above is the text; this is one way of putting it.