The pastor, the boys, the dog and the lying contest – so, who wins the dog in the lying contest?
A pastor was walking down the street, when he came upon a group of a dozen boys, all of them between 10 and 12 years of age. The group of boys were surrounding a dog. Concerned the boys were hurting the dog, the pastor went over and asked, ‘What are you doing with that dog?’
One of the boys replied, ‘This dog is just an old neighborhood stray. We all want him, but only one of us can take him home. So we’ve decided that whichever one of us can tell the biggest lie will get to keep the dog.’
The pastor was shocked. ‘You boys don’t want to tell lies!’ he exclaimed. He then preached for 10 minutes, an impromptu sermon against lying, beginning, ‘Don’t you boys know it’s a sin to lie?’ and ending with, ‘Why, when I was your age, I never told a lie.’
There was dead silence for about a minute. Just as the pastor was beginning to think he had gotten through to them, the smallest boy gave a deep sigh and said, ‘All right, guys, give him the dog.’