The "Misfortunes of Borrowing: (On Not Borrowing Cautiously)" belongs to Plutarch's "Ethics". The particular fervor with which the usually gentle and soft-spoken author dedicates himself to the denunciation of the phenomenon of reckless borrowing (from the perspective of debtors), as well as the greed and brutality of creditors, by directing all his rhetorical arsenal against them, initially led scholars to question the authorship of the text and later to consider it a youthful rhetorical exercise, interpreting its fervor as "juvenilis ardor".

Recent research, however, has now demonstrated that this is a work from Plutarch’s mature period, and specifically a speech written at the earliest in 92 A.D., if not much later. It was likely delivered in Athens, which, like other Greek cities, was plagued by the consequences of over-indebtedness to domestic, but primarily foreign, mostly Italian, creditors and their representatives.

Plutarch, with great sensitivity, illuminates a very serious and multifaceted issue of his time. At the same time, thanks to his immediacy, psychological insight, (sometimes dark) humor, and passion, he manages to engage even the readers of our days - quite the opposite.