About this passageA lawyer has asked Jesus what he must do, been told to love his neighbour, and then asked who counts as one. This story is the answer he is given instead of a definition. A priest and a Levite are men whose standing in the community is not in doubt; a Samaritan, to the people listening, is an outsider and a heretic.
Jesus answered, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the host, and said to him, ‘Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.’
In plainer words
A man is robbed, beaten and left at the roadside. Two respectable men see him and cross over. A third, from the group the listeners would trust least, stops. What he then does is entirely practical and entirely finite: he cleans the wounds, puts the man on his own animal, pays an innkeeper to look after him, promises to settle the rest — and goes on with his journey. He does not fix everything, and he does not stay.
A restatement in modern English, written for this collection. The passage above is the text; this is one way of putting it.