Well once there was a bishop who was getting up in years, so a local lad would come around and help with the chores. He'd milk the cows and slop the pigs and tend the garden and such.
One day the lad came around and found the bishop very unhappy. So he says "My lord Bishop, whatever is the matter?"
And the bishop says, "Well, if it pleases God, I'm to die tomorrow."
"My lord Bishop, whatever do you mean?" asks the boy, because the bishop was old, but he was healthy and he didn't look sick at all.
"Well, the chieftain has sent me three questions and if I can't answer them by tomorrow, I'm to lose my head. I can't answer them, so it must please God that I'm to lose my head."
"Well," says the boy, "what are the three questions?"
"Oh no, don't get involved, you'll only lose your head."
"No, no, tell me please?" and he begged and cajoled and pleaded until the bishop told him the questions. And then he insisted on going in the bishop's place. Well, the bishop wouldn't hear of it, but the boy insisted, finally saying that if he couldn't go instead of the bishop, he would go with him.
"If you do that, we'll both lose our heads!" But the boy insisted, and although the bishop was a pious man he wasn't stupid and he agreed to let the boy go in his place. So in the morning he gave the boy last rites, expecting him to lose his head, and sent him off to see the chieftain.
Well, the boy goes to see the chieftain and says, "I'm here to answer your three questions."
"Where's the bishop?" asks the chieftain.
"He didn't think it was worth his while to come and answer three simple questions."
"Well, if you can't answer them then you'll lose your head instead." And well he would, because the chieftain was a rich and powerful man. He was so rich that no-one knew exactly how much money he had except perhaps himself.
"That's fine," says the boy.
"All right, this is my first question: how many cartloads of sand are there on the sea shore?"
"One," says the boy, "If you had a cart big enough to hold it all."
The chieftain grumbled, but it was an answer so he asks the next question: "How many hairs are there in my beard?"
"As many as there are in that ass's tail," says the boy, pointing to a donkey nearby.
"Oh really?" says the chieftain.
"Well, if you don't believe me, we can pull them out one by one and see if I'm correct," says the boy.
"Okay, okay, this is my last question: How much am I worth?"
Without hesitating, the boy answered, "Twenty-nine pieces of silver."
"And how do you get that?!?" cries the chieftain, because everybody knew he had more money than that.
"Well, my lord God was only worth thirty and your not as good as him!"
So the boy and the bishop were free, and both lived happily for many more years.