This is an anti-chain letter written by Jed Hartman (not by a missionary from South America or Asia) in November of 1994 and modified slightly several times since then. There's no way to tell how many times it's been "around the world" or even what that phrase means though at the time of writing it has never been around the world in any sense.
You are under no obligation to forward this letter. Nothing bad will happen to you because of failure to forward it. Furthermore, this letter absolves you of all bad luck you might otherwise have experienced through failure to forward other chain letters. That means you never again have to write "I'm not superstitious but..." on a chain letter and send it on; you never again have to worry that if you don't forward a chain letter Bad Things will happen to you. Next time you get a chain letter, read this letter again and throw out the other one without forwarding it. If you want to, you can send this letter to the person who sent you the padlock chain letter, but again, you will not experience bad luck because of failure to pass this letter on. You may wish to keep a copy of this letter around for future use, but you may also dispose of it immediately without ill effects. If you do pass this letter on, please send only a single copy of it to any given recipient; never send multiple copies of anything to anyone. Mail bombing someone with this letter is every bit as bad as any other form of mail bombing.
Please note that by forwarding a standard chain letter to someone, you are saying, in effect, "If you don't do what I tell you to do, something bad will happen to you." Would you make such a threat under any other circumstances? Would you be upset if someone else made such a threat to you? Just say no. Don't be a victim of bad luck wished on you by others. Refuse to propagate the chain.