3 sentenced to death arrive on the scaffold:
French, Italian and Belgian. The French first puts his head under the guillotine. The executioner does his work, but miraculously the blade stops a few inches from his neck! Judges believe it's a stroke of fate and think about the miscarriage of justice, they graciously forgive him. Arrive the turn of the Italian, same rite, and same thing, a miracle occurs, the blade stops a few inches from his neck. He is also pardoned.
Comes the Belgian. He puts his head under the ax, he lifts his eyes one last time and says, "Hay, there is a knot in the rope."