Chestnuts: From Jokes, Riddles & Tongue Twisters at Americanfolklore.net

Chestnuts are very old jokes that everyone seems to know. Here are a couple of jokes told by the Greek sage Hierocles of the fifth century A.D.

One man was telling another man about the terrible dream he had.
"I dreamed I stepped on a nail," he said to his friend. "The nail went right through my foot! It hurt like the dickens!"
"It's your own fault, you know," his friend replied. "You shouldn't sleep barefoot!"

Did you hear about the man who was training his horse to live without food? Just when he'd successfully finished its training, it died!

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The joke below is as old as the early Buddhistic writings in India and China.

Two men rented a boat and went out fishing together one fine summer day. It was a great day for fishing, and they found the perfect spot, which was just brimming over with fish. They caught so many that they were determined to come back and fish in the same spot the next day.
"How are we going to find this spot again?" asked the first man as they rowed for home.
"Don't worry, we'll find it again," said the second man. "I put a mark on the bottom of the boat right over the place where we were fishing."
"Great," said the first man enthusiastically. Then he frowned: "But how do you know we'll get this same boat tomorrow?"