A Difficult Judgment . . .

In a small town in India, a person decided to open up his bar shop,
which was right opposite to a temple.
The temple & its congregation started a campaign to block the bar from
opening with petitions and prayed daily against his business.

Meanwhile work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and
about to open a few days later, a strong lightning struck the bar and
it was burnt to the ground

The temple folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till
the bar owner sued the temple authorities on the grounds that the
temple through its congregation & prayers was ultimately responsible
for the demise of his bar shop, either through their direct or
indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the temple vehemently denied all
responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons for
the bar shop's demise.


As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the
paperwork at the hearing and commented:

I don't know how I'm going to decide this case, but it appears from
the paperwork,

'we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer
and
we have an entire temple and its devotees that don't.'