[Ads-l] Joke Origin: The Unjust Steals the Just's Umbrella

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

A well-known bible verse, Matthew 5:45, discusses God and the weather:

[Begin excerpt from Matthew 5:45 in Wycliffe's Bible]
Your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good
and the evil, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.
[Begin excerpt from Wycliffe's Bible]

This verse has attracted humorous commentary. Here is one version of a
joke that has been circulating for more than one-hundred years:

It raineth by th’ eternal laws
Upon the just and unjust fella;
But mostly on the just, because
The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.

References such as "The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations" (1960) and
"The New Yale Book of Quotations" (2021) credit this joke to Lord
Bowen (Charles Bowen) based on an attribution in a 1923 citation.

Now, by request, there is a Quote Investigator article on this topic.
Here is the link:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/02/08/steals-umbrella/

A partial match occurred within the 1853 book "Life in New York, in
Doors and Out of Doors" illustrated by William Burns:

[Begin excerpt]
Heaven makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust; the just and
the unjust resort to umbrellas for protection from too much of the
blessing--the former buying them honestly, the latter stealing them
dishonestly--and so comes that large class of workers--the umbrella
makers.
[End excerpt]

The above passage did contain the core elements of the joke, but it
did not state that the "just" people encountered more raindrops. The
omission of this punchline rendered this instance incomplete.

The earliest full match I located appeared in October 1879 within the
"Bucks County Gazette" of Bristol, Pennsylvania. The newspaper printed
a set of miscellaneous quips under the title "Odds and Ends" which
included this item:

[Begin excerpt]
It rains alike on the just and the unjust--on the just mainly because
the unjust have borrowed their umbrellas.
[End excerpt]

The creator of the joke was anonymous. The attributions to Samuel
Butler, Ogden Nash, Mandell Creighton, Charles Bowen, and George
Ferguson Bowen all occurred later, and I have not yet found
substantive support for these attributions.

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigator.com

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