The Fallen

There was an old Priest who got sick of all the people in his Parish confessing to adultery. One Sunday, at the pulpit, he said, ‘if I hear one more person confess to adultery again, I’ll quit’. Well, everyone liked him so they came up with a code word. Someone who has committed adultery would say, instead, that he has fallen. This seemed to satisfy the old Priest and things went well till he passed on, at a ripe old age.
A few days after, a new Priest arrived and after a month visited the Head of the Town and seemed very concerned. “Chief, you have to do something about the sidewalks in this town. When people come to confess, they keep telling me that they had fallen”. The Chief started to laugh, realising that no one has yet told the new Priest about the code word. Before he could explain, the Priest shook and waved an accusing finger at him,
“I don’t know why you’re laughing because your wife had fallen thrice this week”