A man walks into a butcher's shop and inquires of the butcher: "Are you a gambling man?" The butcher says yes, so the man says: "I bet you £50 that you can't reach up and touch that meat hanging on the hooks up there." The butcher says "I'm not betting on that", "But I thought you were a gambling man" the man retorts. "Yes I am" says the butcher "but the steaks are too high!".

Commentary:
Clearly the joke comes about because of the fact that the words 'steaks' and 'stakes', although they are spelled differently, are homophones (have the same sound structure). Moreover, there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the two resulting versions of the last clause of the joke - the stakes are too high because the steaks are too high and the butcher knows he can't reach them. The butcher may be a gambling man, but he is not so stupid as to bet on an outcome he knows he can't win.

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