In the 1880s there was a rich rancher who lived in Texas. He was not a particularly spiritual dude, but he was very good at manifesting abundance, making some of his neighbors suspect that the two things weren’t necessarily connected. He did claim to be a Christian, but his actions in the world made this claim a doubtful one.

One day, a poor farmer who had no food sneaked on to the rich rancher’s land and stole one of his chickens so that his family could eat. He was caught by one of the ranch hands and brought to the rancher. There were a lot of things the rancher could have said, but all he said was, “Hang ‘im! It’ll teach ‘im a lesson.”

A couple of years later, a man from Mexico was trespassing on the rancher’s land. He was very poor, and hoping to find a new life. What he found were the rancher’s men, who took him to their boss. After looking the trespasser over, all the rancher said was, “Hang ‘im! It’ll teach ‘im a lesson.”

Then one night the rancher’s body died, and he saw himself going up toward the pearly gates of Heaven. The rancher was hoping that no one would recognize him and maybe he could just walk in. But right before he got to the gate, St. Peter stepped in front of him and said, “Wait a minute. Jesus wants to talk to you.”

Now the rancher was very worried. He remembered some of the things he had done in his life, and here he was, about to be judged by Jesus himself! Suddenly, the rancher was shaking in his boots. Jesus appeared, walked slowly up to the rancher, looked him right in the eyes, and then said to St. Peter, “Forgive ‘im. It’ll teach ‘im a lesson.”