As it happened, he got away with this for some time. Eventually
the local church decided to do a big restoration job on the outside
of one of their biggest buildings.

Smokey put in a bid, and because his price was so low, he won
the job.

So he set about erecting the scaffolding and setting up the planks,
and buying the paint and, yes, I am sorry to say, thinning it down
with turpentine.

Well, Smokey was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job
nearly completed, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of
thunder, the sky opened, and the rain poured down, washing the
thinned paint from all over the church and knocking Smokey clear
off the scaffold to land on the lawn among the gravestones,
surrounded by telltale puddles of the thinned and useless paint.

Smokey was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty,
so he got down on his knees and cried, "Oh, my God! Oh, God, please
forgive me. What should I do?"