message: About a century or two ago, the Pope
decided
that
all the Chinese had
to
leave Italy. Naturally there was a big uproar
from
the Chinese
community.

So the Pope made a deal. He would have a
religious
debate with a member
of the Chinese community. If the Chinese win,
they
could stay. If the
Pope wins, the Chinese would leave.

The Chinese realized that they had no other
choice. So they picked a
middle-aged man named Ah Peh to represent
them.

Ah Peh asked for one condition to be added to
the
debate. "To make it
more interesting", he said, "neither side
would be
allowed to talk".

The Pope agreed. The day of the great debate
came.
Ah Peh and the Pope
sat opposite each other for a full minute.

Then the Pope raised his hand and showed
three
fingers. Ah Peh looked
back at him and raised one finger. The Pope
waved
his fingers in a
circle around his head. Ah Peh pointed to the
ground at where he sat.


The Pope pulled out a loaf and a glass of
wine. Ah
Peh pull out an
apple.

The Pope stood up and said: "I give up. This
man
is too good. The
Chinese can stay."

An hour later, the cardinals were all around
The
Pope asking him what
happened?. The Pope said, "first I held up
three
fingers to represent
the holy trinity. He responded by holding up
one
finger to remind me
that there was still one God common to both
our
religions."

"Then I waved my finger around me to show
him
that
God was all around
us." He responded by pointing to the ground
and
showing that God was
also right here with us."

"I pulled out the wine and loaf to show that
God
absolves all sin. He
showed me an apple to remind us of the
original
sin. He had an answer
for everything.

What could I do?"

Meanwhile, the Chinese community had
crowded
around Ah Peh. "What
happened?" they asked.

Well," said Ah Peh, "First he indicated to me
that
all Chinese had 3
days to get out of here. I replied to him f*@k
off
and not one of us
was
leaving." "Then he pointed that this whole city
would be cleared of
Chinese. I showed him that we are staying
right
here." "Yes, and
then???" asked the crowd. "I don't know", said
Ah
Peh, "He took out his
lunch, and I took out mine!!!"