The Three Foreigners

Story: Three Frenchmen went to England to learn English. Standing outside the window of a pub, they heard bits and pieces of various conversations. The first man heard, "We, ourselves", so he thought about that. The second one heard, "Fifteen bob" and he pondered what it could mean. And the third man heard, "It shall be done as you see fit." and he memorized it. Not too long after that, as they continued walking, they came upon a man, dead, lying along the roadside. Just then, a policeman came by and took in the scene.
He looked directly at the three and asked firmly, "Who has done this?"
The first man answered, "We, ourselves".
"What did you do it for?", the policeman questioned.
The second man answered, "Fifteen bob".
The policeman said, "Well, you all will have to be hung for this."
The third man said, "It shall be done, as you see fit."


Briggs, Katharine M, and Ruth L. Tongue. Folktales of England. London: Routledge, 2003. (# 70, pp. 126-127).

Pino, Saavedra Y. "We Ourselves". Folktales of Chile. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1967. (#48).

MacDonald, Margaret R, and Roxane Murphy. Look Back and See: Twenty Lively Tales for Gentle Tellers. New York: H.W. Wilson Co, 1991.


This story-joke would appeal most to older children, or adolescents and above who would catch the humor and double-meaning. It would provide for a lot of discussion in an ESL classroom because students could identify with words used in different contexts influencing meaning.
I feel it's important to adapt the sentences carefully to what your students are likely to understand. The original third line was more of an old English, "Nowt but reet and should be done." I felt it should be adapted to say something like, "It shall be done." or, "As you see fit". The Pino-Saavedra version of this story has as the last line, "Of course".