Story about stress: The Pastors Ass and the opinion of others

There was once a pastor in a small village who spent most of his free time training donkeys. He spent extra time training his favorite donkey and one day he decided to enter him in a prestigious race. Most of his close peers were against his decision but he didn’t let the opinion of others stray him away from his goal.

To the pastor’s delight, the donkey won the race. The next day the local paper read “PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT.” When the news about the article came to the attention of the bishop he was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race. Somehow the bishop’s order to the pastor came to the newspaper attention. The next day, the local paper headline read “BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR’S ASS.“

This time the bishop was even more furious, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey so that the newspaper couldn’t write any more provoking headlines. The pastor decided to give his favorite donkey to a nun in a nearby convent. The local paper heard the news and  posted the following headline the next day “NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.”  The bishop got so upset after reading the newspaper that he fainted. When the bishop regained consciousness he immediately wanted to see the nun to inform her that she would have to get rid of the donkey. So she sold it to a farmer for $10.

The next day the paper read “NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.” This time it was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild and free. The bishop thought to himself that this would finally solve their problems with the newspaper. But then the next day the headlines read “NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.”

This was the final straw for the bishop. He called every one of his staff to his quarters and started yelling how all of this got so out of hand. He just couldn’t get over the fact that the opinion of others about the church and its leading members in this community was tarnished by some small newspaper. While yelling at his peers he suddenly collapsed. The ambulance came and took him to the hospital. Sadly all of this was too much stress for the bishop and he was buried the next day.