A joke and a parable from Peter Rollins

In his contribution to the new anthology Letters to a Future Church, Peter Rollins tells this joke, presenting it as a parable:

Early one morning a man turned up at the house of his minister in tears, saying, “Please, can you help. A kind and considerate family in the area is in great trouble. The husband recently lost his job, and the wife cannot work due to health problems. They have three young children to look after, and the man’s mother lives with them because she is unwell and needs constant care. They have no money at the moment, and if they don’t pay the rent by tomorrow morning the landlord is going to kick them all onto the street, even though it’s the middle of winter.”

The minister replied, “That’s terrible. Of course we will help. I will go get some money from the church fund to pay their rent. Anyway, how do you know them?”

To which the man replied, “Oh, I’m the landlord.”

I like it. It also seems as though the same set-up would also work for a joke/parable with another punchline, in which the church turns out to be the landlord.