A certain preacher needed his house painted. He thought he could get it done cheapest if he hired a gang of neighborhood boys to do it for him. The preacher found a few idle youths hanging out on a street corner and hired them immediately. He gave them money for materials. They would get their wages once the job was done.
On the way to the paint store one of them suggested, “Hey, why don’t we maximize our profits by thinning out the preacher’s paint with water?” His buddies agreed.
So they bought the cheapest paint available, then mixed water into it. The day the boys finished the sun was brightly shining. As the preacher paid the kids, he remarked what a fine job they’d done, and it was worth every penny. A couple of them felt pangs of conscience as they took their wages, but said nothing.
Next day it rained cats and dogs. The thin paint washed completely off the parsonage. It occurred to the preacher just why that happened. He rebuked himself for trying to save a buck by using local kids instead of a professional painting crew. But the kids still needed to be reprimanded. It was a small community, so they weren’t too hard to track down.
When confronted with their deviltry, and its possible eternal consequences, the leader of the pack cried out and asked, “We have greatly transgressed. What would you have us to do?”
The preacher’s reply: “Repaint and thin no more!”
* * * * *
http://boogerbucks.tripod.com
http://banpreachergreed.tripod.com
Read more articles by Patricia Backora or search for articles on the same topic or others.
