A lawyer stood at the gate to Heaven. St. Peter was patiently explaining that the man's sins were far too many and serious to allow for admission into heaven. "Sir, surely you don't deny that you routinely overcharged your clients. That you cheated on your wife with your law clerks and associates -- and that you used your position as a partner to pressure those clerks and associates into becoming involved with you. Surely you don't deny that you deliberately took false positions in court in order to win cases, where any sense of ethics would have caused you to settle. And there's so much more here, why surely...."
The lawyer interrupted, "Yes, yes, I know all of that. But I've done some charity in my life as well."
St. Peter looked in his book and noted, "Yes, I see. Once you gave a dime to a panhandler and once you gave an extra nickel to the shoeshine boy, correct?"
The lawyer looked smug. He replied, "Yes."
St. Peter turned to the angel next to him and said, "Give this guy 15 cents and tell him to go to hell." |
