The ahdname, given to the Franciscan friars by Mehmed II upon his conquest of Bosnia in the mid-fifteenth century, is without a doubt one of the most famous Ottoman documents of the western Balkans. Referenced countless times in both Franciscan and modern scholarly literature, the ahdname acquired an almost cult status as the ultimate proof of a special pact between the Catholic order and the sultans. Without entering the debate on the authenticity of this document (as others have already done so), my aim is to look at this document as a testament of the Franciscan skillful engagement of the Ottoman administrative and diplomatic genres and as a reflection of the ways in which the Ottoman subjects appropriated and applied these documents. Much has been said on the issue of diplomatic documents, especially in the context of foreigners in the Ottoman lands, but there is still little work on how different Ottoman subjects navigated the Ottoman administrative genres. In order to do that, I follow the paper trail of the Franciscan ahdname scattered across the vast archive of one of the largest and oldest Catholic monasteries in Bosnia, the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in the town of Fojnica. The Holy Spirit is the present home of the ahdname but it is also an archive housing Ottoman documents from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, offering an opportunity to situate the ahdname within the rich history of written interaction between the monastic order and the state. Specifically, I trace how the ahdname is referred to in various fermans, buyuruldus, and hüccets between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century. Following the paper trail that the ahdname left in these texts draws important insights into how narratives of privilege were crafted and evolved over time. The Franciscan ahdname, like majority of the Ottoman documents, has hitherto been studied as top-down pronouncements of the state, demonstrating its comprehensive control. My work shifts the perspective from the state to the consumers of these documents, highlighting the limits of state authority over its own bureaucracy and an active role taken by the subjects in shaping the meaning and outcome of Ottoman documents.