The portuguese nativity scene

I was visiting José, a friend from Azinhaga, a very small village in Portugal. He went to the countryside, and I stayed in his garden having some beers when suddenly a sheep covered in mud appeared. "I'm an angel," it clearly said with a bleat. I burst into laughter. "How funny! I'm having drinks, and the only one getting drunk is this sheep," I replied.

"Hush! Ignorant, lacking faith!" said the sheep and then told me a rather peculiar story. It claimed that before time was time, God and the devil were great friends. Perhaps out of boredom, God decides to create everything in six or seven days. The devil didn't want to be left behind and does exactly the same, just a bit lower.

For every thing the devil copied, God got angry and created something more challenging to replicate. In the end, he came up with the idea of the forbidden fruit. He hit the nail on the head because Satan has no concept of sin; guilt doesn't exist for him. From there, both creations diverged, with the earth staying above and hell below. "They're basically the same; the only difference is guilt," said the sheep before turning into a mud pile in the garden.

I was only thinking about getting sober to tell the story to my host and make him believe me. That night, I repeated the tale, but I had mixed everything up. I told him it was a goat, not a sheep, that, in reality, the earth is hell, and God has a paradise above. In the end, it was a disaster.

The strange thing is that José believed me, and then I realized that he was the sheep.