There was a Scottish tradesman, a painter called Jock, who was very
interested in making a pound where he could, so he often would thin
down paint to make it go a wee bit further.
As it happened, he got away with this for some time, but eventually
the Presbyterian Church decided to do a big restoration job on the
roof of one their biggest churches. Jock put in a bid, and because
his price was so competitive, he got the job.
And so he set to, with a right good will, erecting the trestles and
setting up the planks, and buying the paint and, yes, I am sorry to
say, thinning it down with the turpentine.
Well, Jock was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly
done, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder, and
the sky opened the rain poured down, washing the thin paint from
all over the church and knocking Jock fair off the scaffold to land
on the lawn, among the gravestones, surrounded by telltale
puddles of the thinned and useless paint.
Jock was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he
got on his knees and cried: "Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?"
And from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke: "Repaint! Repaint and thin
no more!" |
