“But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him a hundred denarii (one hundred day's wages for a low-paid worker), and he laid hold on him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.' ”
And then what follows is intentionally grotesque. The servant had a fellow servant who owed him the equivalent of one hundred days wages for a low paid worker. On one scale this equalled the value of four gold coins (one sixtieth of a talent). But he was so little moved by the forgiveness that had been offered to him that he grabbed him by the throat and demanded immediate repayment. Note that he was not only demanding, but violent. He was furious that this man had not repaid his debt. Ideas of forgiveness were totally foreign to him. The offer of forgiveness to him had not touched him.
There are indications in Rabbinic literature that grabbing a debtor by the throat was an accepted procedure of the day. But the emphasis here is on an increasing lack of compassion (thus later the king will deliver the unforgiving servant to the ‘torturers'). When men lack compassion that attitude of heart grows until it becomes positive evil. No man stands still. As he grows older he either softens or hardens.