That last question is ambiguous enough (in this specific scenario) that either answer would work. It’s both true that the other guard can’t tell her something happened (due to being dead), while the other guard would have said that something did happen if he had been able to. So it’s a meaningless question but the wife doesn’t know that since she doesn’t know the guard is dead.
My favorite take on this:
That last question is ambiguous enough (in this specific scenario) that either answer would work. It’s both true that the other guard can’t tell her something happened (due to being dead), while the other guard would have said that something did happen if he had been able to. So it’s a meaningless question but the wife doesn’t know that since she doesn’t know the guard is dead.
Which just adds another layer to the joke lol.