The Jewish version; a guy goes to a schul in his new home town. It's beautiful, it's great, he feels really connected to the community and... everyone bows on the third step to the bima, consistently, no matter why they're going up there. After services, he's talking to the rabbi and brings this up, and the rabbi's answer is, "Oh! We used to meet in a big basement. There was a really low lying pipe right above the third step to the bima."

A few years later in a wing tsun class; there are some gong fu students, going through this taolu, where you do a number of kicks, blocks, and after about 15', you turn 180 degrees and repeat going the opposite direction. Eventually one of the students asks why the turn after 15'? And the sifu's answer is "Oh. I came up with this when I lived in a real small apartment."