Giuseppe, who has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for theft, goes to meet a village priest with a letter of recommendation in his pocket. He hopes the vicar will provide him with a job but the poor man happens to be so ill that he cannot possibly help him. Over time, driven by hunger and desperation, Giuseppe steals a hundred lira from the poor box but, about to be surprised, he runs away from the village after donning one of the priest's cassocks. On the road he meets a police officer who, mistaking him for a cleric, asks him to give a helping hand to a rich landlord whose farmers are on strike and threaten to invade the land. If he manages to settle the conflict "Don Peppino" will be given a large sum of money for the reconstruction of "his" rundown church.