Promises and Friends

A man was going to die and wanted to try to take his money with him. He told three of his friends— a doctor, a preacher, and an attorney—what he wanted to do and gave each one an envelope with $10,000.00. His friends thought he had gone over the deep end; but, being good friends, they agreed to place the envelopes with the money into their friend's coffin at his funeral.

Weeks passed before he died. Just as the three friends had promised, they attended the funeral. One by one they approached the coffin and lay their envelopes on their friend's chest first the doctor, then the preacher, and finally the attorney.

A few weeks passed, and the three friends decid­ed to get together for lunch. They tried to avoid talking about their friend and his funeral. Finally the preacher spoke out. He informed the others that his conscience was bothering him because he took $3,000 dollars out of his envelope and donated it to a charity that needed the money. He asked for the other two to forgive him and insisted that he was sure their friend would have approved of his decision. Hearing the preacher's confession, the doctor informed his companions that his hospital was building a new wing, so he borrowed $5,000 dollars from his envelope to donate to the hospital. He also insisted that their friend would have approved of his decision.

Finally, the attorney looked at both men in dis­gust and informed them that he had known they wouldn't hold up their part of the bargain. But he assured them that he had forethought, and being a generous man, he had picked up all three envelopes from the coffin and replaced them with a personal check for the entire $30,000.