There's this old priest who got sick
of all the people in his parish who
kept confessing to adultery. One Sunday,
in the pulpit, he said,
"if I hear one more person confess
to adultery, I'll quit!"
Well, everyone liked him, so they
came up with a code word
. Someone who had committed adultery would
say they had "fallen".
This seemed to satisfy the old priest
and things went well, until the
priest died at a ripe old age. About
a week after the new priest arrived,
he visited the Mayor of the town and
seemed very concerned. The priest said,
"you have to do something about the
sidewalks in town.When people
come into the confessional, they keep
talking about having fallen."
The Mayor started to laugh, realizing
that no-one had told the new priest
about the code word. Before the mayor
could explain,
the priest shook an accusing finger
at the mayor and said,
"I don't know what you're laughing
about, Your wife fell three times this week."