On a normal and tranquil Sunday morning in a native suburb of Johannesburg, an old colored man makes a grand donation of his life savings, forty pounds, to his priest. And while the two are praying for heavenly guidance as to how the money should be spent to help the multitude of needy, a skulking thief makes off with it. Away he goes through the church door, with the old man and the priest in pursuit, shouting "stop, thief!" to rouse the whole quarter. Thus the story begins. But before it reaches a finish, with the money back in the priest's hands and the thief, a slippery rascal, in the heavy hands of the police, the forty pounds has done more service, accidentally, in the cause of good on behalf of several unsuspecting natives than it could ever have done otherwise.