A dying man gathered his lawyer, doctor, and clergyman at his bedside and handed each of them an envelope containing $25.000 in cash. He made them each promise that after his death and during his repose, they would place the three envelopes in his coffin. He told them that he wanted to have enough money to enjoy the next life.
A week later, the man died. At the wake, one by one the lawyer, doctor, and clergyman concealed an envelope in the coffin and bid their old client and friend farewell.
By chance, these three met several months later. Soon the clergyman, feeling guilty, confessed that there was only $10.000 in the envelope he placed in the coffin. He felt, rather than waste all the money, he would send it to a mission in South America. He asked for their forgiveness.
The doctor, moved by the gentle clergyman's sincerity, confessed that he, too had kept some of the money for a worthy medical charity. The envelope, he admitted, had only $8000 in it. He said that he too could not bring himself to waste the money so frivolously when it could be used to benefit others.
By the time, the lawyer was seething with self-righteous outrage. He expressed his deep disappointment in the felonious behavior of two of his oldest and most trusted friends. "I am the only one who kept his promise to our dying friends," He told them. " I want you both to know that the envelope I placed in the coffin contained the full amount. Indeed, my envelope contained my personal check for the entire twenty-five thousand."
