“He shared the story of the conversion of the tax collector who had been cheating people & keeping a cut for himself.”
I’m glad you caught that and shared it.
The ancient contract tax-collectors, or publicans, were supposed to keep a cut. They had to report their total collections and then a portion of that was returned to them. The system was old already in the time of the Ptolemies.
Corruption doesn't happen because one is a publican. It happens because one is corrupt.
But the statement doesn't establish that the publican in question was "cheating" people.
Publicans were hated anyway, even when they were honest.