A Major Slip-up
For years, Father O’Malley had faithfully served his little parish, but he was growing weary of hearing so many confessions about the same sin—adultery.
One Sunday, he stood at the pulpit and said, “If I hear one more person confess to adultery, I’ll retire!”
The townsfolk didn’t want to lose him, so they agreed to use a code word instead. From then on, anyone who had slipped up would simply say they had “fallen.”
The system worked perfectly, and Father O’Malley served happily for many more years.
Eventually, he passed away, and a new, younger priest took his place.
After his first week on the job, he paid a visit to the town’s mayor looking rather troubled.
“Mr. Mayor,” he said, “you need to fix the sidewalks in this town. Half the people I talk to say they’ve fallen!”
The mayor burst out laughing, realizing the misunderstanding, but before he could explain, the priest frowned and added, “And I don’t see what’s so funny… your wife fell three times this week!”
