Not many people know this, but before he became our parish deacon, Sean moved in some very distinguished circles with lots of rich and influential friends. One day Sean and his wife Ann were invited to visit one of his rich friends who lives in an opulent grand mansion set in its own a vast
estate to the north of Leeds. Ken, a highly successful business executive was throwing a party for some of his business colleagues and was taking them all on a tour of his beautiful gardens and terraces at the front of the house and they all seemed suitably impressed and congratulated Ken’s gardener on all his hard work. Then they moved to the rear of the property and there beyond the lawns and terraces was the largest swimming pool they had ever seen. One visitor asked, “Do you swim every morning then?” His host replied “I wouldn’t recommend a dip in that pool; it’s where I keep my pets” and looking in, they could see two huge alligators swimming up and down. The day progressed and after dinner and several bottles of wine, the host announced that he would like to say a few words. He started, “Courage is what makes a decent executive make the right decisions, I always judge a man by his courage, so this is my challenge to each of you: if anyone has enough courage to dive into my pool, swim through my alligators and make it
to the other side, I will give that person a brand new car of any price and make he chooses.”

Everyone laughed at this outrageous offer, although Sean did wonder what make of expensive car he would choose if he was foolish enough to accept the challenge, but a look from his wife Ann quickly drove this idea out of his head. The guests started making their way from the pool area to the outside bar, set up on the rear terrace. Suddenly, they hear a loud splash; everyone turns round to see George, the financial director, in the pool and swimming for his life, he dodges the alligators left and right and makes it to the edge of the pool with seconds to spare.

With the help of some of the guests he begins to pull himself out of the pool, just as one of the alligator’s snaps at his shoe. As the guests comfort the shaking, sodden man, Ken, his host rushes up and says, “I’m absolutely flabbergasted, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, you are the bravest man I have ever known and beside the car, anything I own is yours, please tell me what you would like as your reward.” The financial expert, panting for breath and as white as a ghost, struggles to speak, then he says, “First of all you can tell me which bloody idiot pushed me into the pool!"