How to dodge the law

Here's a great Covenanter story sent to me by a man in Ayrshire:

"...A government edict was put out that all would observe the fast days proclaimed by the government. The penalty for anyone caught working on a fast day would be the confiscation of all the oxen and horses belonging to the culprit. One old farmer in Nithsdale, Armstrong by name, who had a troop of redcoats stationed nearby, yoked his ten brawny sons to the plough and worked the full day without the least molestation by the troopers..."