A financial riddle lurks behind the events at the besieged Branch Davidian compound: How did an obscure religious sect manage to feed, clothe, house and heavily arm dozens of devotees, with no obvious sources of income?

Neither interviews nor public records provide a definitive answer, but some members reportedly tithe their income while others give their belongings to the cult.

Except for their large, costly cache of weapons, David Koresh and his followers seem to live modestly, according to court papers.

They collected decades-old cars, recycled building materials, fell behind on property taxes and purchased food in bulk with cash, food stamps and other public aid. Furnishings in the compound reportedly are comfortable but not plush. Although amenities include a swimming pool and TV satellite dish, there is no indoor plumbing.

Meanwhile, federal agents maintain, Koresh and his group accumulated a formidable arsenal, including illegal-and expensive-fully automatic heavy weapons.

Cult member Steve Schneider, interviewed a week ago by phone on the day after federal agents tried to raid the compound, said group members "all tithe; we work hard and save money."

Some cult members, including a Harvard-trained lawyer, are employed.

Rick Ross, a cult deprogrammer in Phoenix who has worked with former members of the Branch Davidians, told the Associated Press that "good salaries earned on the outside were plowed back into the sect." Koresh is "very much into money," he said.

Other members, however, have little or no outside income. Court records show that a woman, 75, who left the compound last week is unemployed and has an income of $509 a year. Another woman, 77, moved to the compound 20 years ago and has given most of her money to the sect, according to her attorney, Gary Coker.

In a briefing Saturday, a federal agent said investigators found that the people who joined Koresh gave up their personal goods and homes. All of their money went to Koresh.

But a man who lived with the Davidians for two months in 1991 reported that Koresh didn't solicit contributions. He paid $40 a month for room and board, but "I never saw any interaction of money between disciples and Koresh," said the London resident, who requested anonymity. "I don't know where he got his money from. . . . That's the weird thing. You see he can afford all these things, and none of his people seemed like they had a lot of money. There's something fishy here."

The most visible asset of the Branch Davidians is the 77-acre compound, valued on the McLennan County tax rolls at $122,000. Deed records show that the plot is part of a 941-acre compound the group purchased in 1957 for $85,000 cash, after selling a smaller compound on Lake Waco.

At that time, the sect was growing as people from around the country descended on Waco in preparation for April 22, 1959, the date foretold as "the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth in Waco" by Florence Houteff, the wife and successor of the group's founder.

When her prediction failed, the group found itself embroiled in lawsuits by people who had sold their worldly goods to join. In that climate, the Davidians sold off all but 77 acres of their property for $181,000 in February 1961.

McLennan County tax records show that two acres of the compound are tax-exempt for religious purposes, but more than $3,275 in taxes on the remainder are overdue for 1991 and 1992.

Since 1961, the group has never borrowed money against the property. No collateral-secured loans to the group or Koresh are registered at the courthouse, where they would normally be recorded.