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.”