Historians have revealed it is in the world's oldest joke book - entitled Philogelos, or The Lover of Laughter. In the fourth-century version, a man goes up to a slave trader and moans: "The slave you sold me died." Under the law then, he was entitled to damages.

The trader replies: "Did he? By the gods, when he was with me he never did such a thing!"

In the Python version, attributed to John Cleese and Graham Chapman, an irate customer played by Cleese returns to a pet shop to complain about a "deceased" parrot he bought from the owner (Michael Palin).

The gag appeared on cult TV comedy Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1969. Its predecessor is one of 260 jokes in the collection, attributed to a pair named Hierocles and Philagrius. They have been translated by US classics professor William Berg. Other old favourites include: "A man walks into a bar . . . ".

Clips of comic Jim Bowen telling them are on library site www.yudu.com. YUDU chairman Richard Stephenson said: "Jim brings them back from the dead. It's like Jurassic Park for jokes."

I thought that was were Jom Bowen got all his material from...

Then you say "There, he moved." and the place will fall apart!

The original was here