Births, Deaths, Marriages

An old man goes into the local newspaper office and asks to place an obituary notice in the Births, Deaths, Marriages column for his deceased wife.

The receptionist says it will cost him £1 per word. He spends a moment or two filling in the form and hands it over to her, along with three pounds.

The message says simply "Doris is dead."

"Oh, that's awful" she says "but why only the three words?"

"That's all I can afford" he replies.

She looks quite upset, and says "Just let me have a word with the Editor, see what I can do".

After a moment or two she comes back and tells him the Editor says he can have another three words free of charge.

So he takes the form, scribbles down some more, before passing it back to her.

She picks up the form up and reads it: "Doris is dead. Car for sale."