The Quran

Preface

فَانطَلَقا حَتّىٰ إِذا أَتَيا أَهلَ قَريَةٍ استَطعَما أَهلَها فَأَبَوا أَن يُضَيِّفوهُما فَوَجَدا فيها جِدارًا يُريدُ أَن يَنقَضَّ فَأَقامَهُ ۖ قالَ لَو شِئتَ لَاتَّخَذتَ عَلَيهِ أَجرًا

Yusuf Ali

Then they proceeded: until, when they came to the inhabitants of a town, they asked them for food, but they refused them¹ hospitality. They found there a wall on the point of falling down, but he set it up straight. (Moses) said: “If thou hadst wished, surely thou couldst have exacted some recompense for it!”²

The inhabitants were churlish. They broke the universal Eastern rule of hospitality to strangers, and thus showed themselves beyond the pale of ordinary human courtesies. Note that they would have been expected to offer hospitality of themselves, unasked. Here Moses and his companion actually had to ask for hospitality and were refused point-blank.
As they were refused hospitality, they should, as self-respecting men, have shaken the dust of the town off their feet, or shown their indignation in some way. Instead of that, Khidr actually goes and does a benevolent act. He rebuilds for them a falling wall, and never asks for any compensation for it. Perhaps he employed local workman for it and paid them wages, thus actually benefiting a town which had treated him and his companion so shabbily! Moses is naturally surprised and asks, “Could you not at least have asked for the cost?”