Interest on money — used by Jesus in the Parable of the Talents for the returns that faithful stewardship of entrusted resources should produce.
The Greek tokos (from tiktō, to give birth) means 'offspring' in the literal sense but is used commercially for 'interest' — the offspring of invested money. It appears in Matthew 25:27 and Luke 19:23 in the Parable of the Talents/Minas: 'You should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest (tokō).' The master's rebuke to the unfaithful servant uses the minimal standard of a banker's interest as the baseline expectation for stewardship.
The tokos in the Parable of the Talents is not a financial lesson but a stewardship theology. The master expected something — at minimum, the baseline return of a banker's interest — from every servant entrusted with his goods. The unfaithful servant buried his talent 'out of fear' and returned it unchanged. This is not humility — it is failed stewardship dressed as caution. The tokos standard is minimal: even a banker provides a return. God's expectation of those entrusted with the gospel, gifts, and opportunities of the kingdom is that they will be invested, risked, and multiplied — not preserved in safety.