Once upon a time there were two brothers. One was wise, and the other was mad. Together they had stolen a bag full of nuts.

The wise one said to the mad brother, "While you divide the nuts, I will steal that sheep we saw walking in the meadow."

"All right," said the mad one, "I'll make sure I'll find a nice and safe place for us to divide the loot."

He went into the churchyard and climbed over the wall of the bone shed (where they keep dead men's bones). In this shed, he started to divide the nuts. Every time he took two nuts out of the bag, he put them on two different piles.

With each two he said, "That one is for me, that one is for you."

The sexton, who was still in the church despite the late hour, heard a noise from inside the churchyard. He listened and heard that the sound came from the bone shed. He listened again and clearly heard the following words, "That one is for me, that one is for you."

With a distraught look on his face and pale with fear, the sexton went to the priest's and said, "Oh Father, never, nevermore dare I tread into the church! Would this be the end of days? I believe the angels and the devils are counting the bones. Clearly I heard it said, repeatedly, 'That one is for me, that one is for you'."

"Oh come on, you daft idiot!" said the Father, "is your head haunted too? I don't believe a word of all your tales."

The sexton said, "Father, if you won't come along with me to see what is going on, I dare never go inside the church anymore."

The Father, an old man suffering from rheumatism, joined the sexton and went to the church, leaning on his walking stick. And wouldn't you know, from inside the churchyard, he also heard, repeatedly, "That one is for me, that one is for you."

"But," said the Father, "I may have heard it now, but I'd also like to see it."

"Not me, Father! Upon my soul! Not me."

"Well, I'm not asking you to have a look," said the Father, "but that wall is too high for me. If you'd be kind enough to lean over for me, I can climb on your back. Then I will be able to look inside the bone shed."

The sexton was willing to agree to that, and when the Father was standing on his back, he could just about peek over the edge of the wall. But the noise they were making had alarmed the mad one, who thought he heard his brother, and said, "Ah, there you are! Wait, let's be quick about this and cut that throat immediately!"

The sexton got the shock of his life: He thought they were talking about HIS throat. He took to his heels and dropped the Father. And this good man, who had been muddling along with his rheumatism for many, many years, was so scared that he could walk straight again, just like that.