Silver Ladle

[Ruler]

A young priest has just graduated from the seminary. Because of the shortage of priests, he is assigned to be pastor of a small church. He was told that there's an older priest in the next town who can help him out when he runs into problems or has questions.

After a few weeks, the young priest decides to call the old priest. The older priest invites him to dinner so that they can talk about his questions.

The next evening, the young priest arrives at the rectory where the older priest lives. He's greeted at the door by a middle-aged housekeeper who takes his coat and ushers him into the kitchen where the older priest is waiting. She then starts serving dinner and the priests discuss priestly matters, including the younger priest about questioning traditionally held beliefs, looking to back them up or contradict them with factual evidence. During dinner, the young priest gets a strange feeling watching the housekeeper and the older priest interact, but decides to say nothing. At the end of dinner, he departs, still uncertain, but feeling as though he's had a good discussion with somebody who has a lot more experience than he has had.

Several days later, the housekeeper asks the older priest if he's seen the silver gravy ladle. The older priest says that he hasn't and they narrow down the time it disappeared to the night that the younger priest visited for dinner! The older priest tells his housekeeper that he'd take care of it. He then writes the younger priest a letter saying, "I'm not saying that you took the silver ladle and I'm not saying that you didn't take the silver ladle, but I am saying that I haven't seen the silver ladle since we had dinner." He then addresses it, puts a stamp on, and puts it in the mailbox for the mail carrier to pick up.

A few days later, he gets a letter. He sees that the return address indicates that it's from the younger priest. He opens it up, thinking that it contains an apology for taking the silver ladle. Inside is a letter which says, "I'm not saying that you are sleeping with your housekeeper and I'm not saying you are not sleeping with your housekeeper, but I am saying that if you had been sleeping in your own bed, you would've found the silver ladle by now."