Odysseus spoke up, eager to test the swineherd,
see if he’d stretch out his warm welcome now,
invite him to stay on in the farmstead here
or send him off to town. "Listen, Eumaeus,
all you comrades here – at the crack of dawn
I mean to go to town and do my begging,
not be a drain on you and all your men."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 15, lines 338-344. Odysseus-the-beggar shows his cunning when he decides to test Eumaeus. He wants to know how far the swineherd’s welcome will stretch, and see if he invites Odysseus to stay when the hero suggests leaving at dawn to beg in town.