Matthew 25:14-30 (a variant — the "Parable of the Minas" — appears in Luke 19:11-27). A man going on a journey entrusts three servants with his property: to one he gives five talanta (a "talent" was about 75 pounds of silver — an enormous sum, roughly 20 years' wages for a laborer), to another two, to another one, "each according to his ability." The first two trade and double their master's money; the third buries his single talent in the ground. When the master returns he commends the first two — "Well done, good and faithful servant... enter into the joy of your master" — and condemns the third as "wicked and slothful."
The Parable of the Talents is Jesus' answer to the question, "What should I be doing until you return?" Three lessons. (1) Every disciple has been entrusted with something. The word "talent" in its modern English sense of natural ability comes straight from this parable, and that secondary meaning is not an accident — every believer has time, gifts, money, influence, relationships, knowledge, and opportunities that Christ has given as deposits to be traded. Nobody is giftless. (2) Faithfulness is measured by use, not by output. The servant who doubled five got the same commendation as the one who doubled two: "Well done, good and faithful servant... enter into the joy of your master" (vv. 21, 23). Faithful use of whatever the master gave is what matters, not absolute production; the two-talent servant was not compared to the five-talent servant. (3) Non-use is active wickedness. The one-talent servant's defense — "I knew you to be a hard man... so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground" — is treated as self-condemning. He had a low view of the master and therefore played it safe. Jesus calls this evil, not merely unfortunate. The passivity of "I don't want to presume" is, in the final ledger, robbery. What has the Master entrusted to you? Trade it. The outer darkness is not reserved for the obviously wicked; it is reserved for those who buried the deposit.