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A minister concluded that his church was getting into serious

financial troubles..

Coincidentally, by chance, while checking the church storeroom,

he discovered several cartons of new bibles that had never been

opened and distributed. So at his Sunday sermon, he asked for

three volunteers from the congregation who would be willing to

sell the bibles door-to-door for $10 each to raise the desperately

needed money for the church.

Peter, Paul and Louie all raised their hands to volunteer for

the task.

The reverend knew that Peter and Paul earned their living as

salesmen and were likely capable of selling some bibles but he

had serious doubts about Louie. Louie was just a little local
farmer,

who had always tended to keep to himself because he was

embarrassed by his speech impediment. Poor little Louis stuttered

very badly.. But, not wanting to discourage poor Louis, the

reverend decided to let him try anyway.

He sent the three of them away with the back seat of their cars

stacked with bibles and asked them to meet with him and report

the results of their door-to-door selling efforts the following

Sunday which they did.

Eager to find out how successful they were, the reverend

immediately asked Peter, "Well, Peter, how did you make out

selling our bibles last week?"

Proudly handing the reverend an envelope, Peter replied,

"Father, using my sales prowess, I was able to sell 20 bibles,

and here's the 200 dollars I collected on behalf of the church."

"Fine job, Peter!" The reverend said, vigorously shaking his

hand. "You are indeed a fine salesman and the Church is

indebted to you."

Turning to Paul, he asked "And Paul, how many bibles did you

manage to sell for the church last week?"

Paul, smiling and sticking out his chest, confidently replied,

"Reverend, I am a professional salesman and was happy to give

the church the benefit of my sales expertise. Last week I sold

28 bibles on behalf of the church, and here's 280 dollars I
collected."

The reverend responded, "That's absolutely splendid, Paul. You

are truly a professional salesman and the church is also indebted
to

you."

Apprehensively, the reverend turned to little Louie and said,

"And Louie, did you manage to sell any bibles last week?"

Louie silently offered the reverend a large envelope. The

reverend opened it and counted the contents.. "What is this?"

the reverend exclaimed. "Louie, there's 3200 dollars in here!

Are you suggesting that you sold 320 bibles for the church,

door to door, in just one week?

Louie just nodded.

That's impossible!" both Peter and Paul said in unison. "We are

professional salesmen, yet you claim to have sold 10 times as

many bibles as we could."

"Yes, this does seem unlikely," the reverend agreed. "I think

you'd better explain how you managed to do accomplish this, Louie."

Louie shrugged. "I-I-I- re-re-really do-do-don't kn-kn-know

f-f-f-for sh-sh-sh-sure," he stammered.

Impatiently, Peter interrupted. "For crying out loud, Louie,

just tell us what you said to them when they answered the door!"

"A-a-a-all I-I-I s-s-said wa-wa-was," Louis replied,

"W-w-w-w-would y-y-y-you l-l-l-l-l-like t-t-to b-b-b-buy
th-th-th-this

b-b-b-b-bible f-f-for t-t-ten b-b-b-bucks ---o-o-o-or---
wo-wo-would

yo-you j-j-j-just l-like m-m-me t-t-to st-st-stand h-h-here and

r-r-r-r-r-read it t-to y-y-you?"