An Irishman, a Greek and a Jew are working on a construction site

An Irishman, a Greek and a Jew are working on a construction site. They are just finishing up lunch when an iron beam falls from above, killing them all.

In Heaven, Saint Peter greets the three workers. The Irishman remembers Saint Peter from his Catechism and immediately throws himself Saint Peter's mercy.

"O please, Saint Peter, let me return to me life on Earth. I will give anything."

Saint Peter looks at the Irishman with a leery eye. "I'll let you go back," says he, "but you must never touch a drop of alcohol for so long as you live."

"I'll do it, so I will," the Irishman says, and in a puff of smoke he disappears.

"Send me home too!" the Greek says. "I'll do anything."

"Very well," Saint Peter says, "as long as you never think of sex again, I will let you return to life."

"Thank you, Saint Peter. I will not let you down."

The Greek disappears just as the Irishman did. As the Jew and Saint Peter make eye contact, the Jew raises his eyebrow knowingly.

"You can go too," says Saint Peter, "on the condition that you never lay one finger on a single penny that you did not earn with sweat on your brow."

"I promise," the Jew says.

And the next day, as the three men take their lunch on the construction site, the Irishman tells the Greek and the Jew about the dream he had the night before. The Greek and the Jew, floored, admit they had the very same dream.

"This is all too much. Let's go down to the pub for pint," the Irishman says. So the three men go down to the pub and each orders a pint of beer.

"Wait," says the Jew to the Irishman. "Saint Peter made you promise not to touch another drop of alcohol."

The Irishman raises his glass to the Jew and the Greek, then tilts it to drink. Just as the amber dew is about to touch his tongue, the Irishman disappears.

The Irishman's pint crashes to the floor, spilling everywhere. The Jew and the Greek give each other one look and then bolt, leaving their pints on the bar. When they get out to the street, the Jew notices a penny on the ground.

The Jew bends over to pick up the penny, and just as he is about to pluck the penny up off the street, the Greek disappears.