to ask for your help solving this impossible riddle/joke

[killingtime9198]

My best friend's family have a family 'joke', which she originally told me about when we were about 12/13. When she originally told me she didn't get the joke either, but then later did manage to work it out. When she first met her now husband he didn't get it, but he later also worked it out. I have never managed to get it, and every now and again I will remember the saga of this joke (this has been going on for about 20 years now), try desperately for a few days to work it out and then forget all about it for months.

Anyway, I wonder if the powers of mumsnet can either locate someone who has heard this 'joke' before, or who can work it out!

The joke is:

'There once was a man called Boswell. For short they called him Bos, and he walked up the post office steps.'

The joke is definitely NOT that there is no joke, and they're all having a laugh at me for trying to work it out - I am 100% confident of this.

Im posting it again so we dint have to flit back and forth

'There was a man, whose name was boswell. And for short they called him bos. And he walked up the post office steps'

This thread is reminding me of a novel I read years ago in which a family had a similar in-joke. They would pass something to each other and say "I pass the x crossed" and the other person would say "I accept the x crossed and pass it on uncrossed" or whatever (it was about their legs being crossed I think). They never let the mother into the joke (they were very unpleasant to her) and she couldn't figure it out. Anyone remember the name of this novel? Might have been a Joanna Trollope.

Ok so the only none changeable words, and as such the only relevant words are

Called Boswell, bos for short, and walked up

Yeh its like if you dont say please or something at the end then its always wromg.

Ok this makes more sense. There was a man whose name was Boswelland Forshort. They called him, “Bos!” And he walked up the Post Office steps.
That’s it! I’m considering it solved! (And not holding my breath for an update on Thursday).

Personally I think I solved it a while back. In just three short lines.

I am very wise.

But op stated "walked" isnt relelvant. It could be "approached" etc.

Could be right bum!

Oh sorry @Whisky2014, i should have said, Boswelland is deeply appreciative of your compliments about him/her.

Yeh its like if you dont say please or something at the end then its always wromg.

Or the 'I like jelly but I don't like jam' one.

Palisers it's the Chimney Sweepers something by Barbara Vine

Boswelland Forshort. What a fucking name.

I think I have it! For short and ......forshorten, which means to get smaller as it goes away......so when he approaches the post office/library he forshortens?

There was a man whose name was Boswelland Forshort
Ah, is he one of the Windsor Forshorts?

Isn’t bos the shortened term for a post office branch? If that is relevant at all?

Well well. It's a deep one.

Well, well, well.
Three holes in the ground.

Bumsex and janejeffer have pushed me over the edge, crying with laughter. I’m wearing a rather unstable green mascara and now I look like an eco friendly Alice Cooper.

StripySocks does your answer have a Wiltshire connection?

OP, give your mate's family this, sans the solution.

curiosity.com/topics/this-riddle-has-been-dubbed-the-hardest-logic-puzzle-ever-curiosity/

Let them burn.

Sammy I think that's bank of Scotland.

I've decided they are talking shit. If no one on the internet. An get it and there's nothing on Google then they have to be making it up.

This is the worst day of my life

Terrible joke. Not worth 9 pages. Zero stars.

I've decided they are talking shit. If no one on the internet. An get it and there's nothing on Google then they have to be making it up

Yup

Fuck me this is THE most frustrating thing I’ve EVER read on here in 12 years gahhh