The Cost of Kindness

Wychwood-on-the-Heath is a quaint English village that has just received the best news in years: their thoroughly antagonistic and deeply unpopular vicar, the Reverend Augustus Cracklethorpe, is finally leaving. The congregation is absolutely overjoyed to see the back of him, and the vicar himself is happily preparing a blistering, vituperative final sermon to admonish his ungrateful flock on his way out the door.

Driven by a sense of polite Christian duty, Mrs. Pennycoop convinces her auctioneer husband and a few reluctant neighbors that they shouldn't let the vicar leave on such terrible terms. She organizes a small, sympathetic farewell gesture to smooth things over, intending it merely as a face-saving formality.

But kindness, as Jerome brilliantly proves, can have a devastating cost. Overwhelmed by this unexpected display of "affection," the ego-driven Reverend Cracklethorpe undergoes a sudden change of heart. Misinterpreting the polite gesture as a sign that his congregation desperately wants him to remain, he tears up his farewell sermon and joyfully announces that he has decided to stay in the parish forever, provided the terrified townspeople fund an extra curate to help him!

The Cost of Kindness is one of Jerome K. Jerome's sharpest, most tightly constructed social comedies. It is a delightfully cynical, cozy piece of vintage British humor that skewers human hypocrisy, social performance, and the hilarious dangers of being just a little too polite.