A group of travelers stop at an inn in the middle of the wilderness. When they are resting in their room, the innkeeper comes to ask if they would like [to be beaten] "half dead or all the way dead", and then leaves again while they discuss this. They are obviously quite spooked, thinking that they're about to be attacked and robbed by a bunch of thugs. At least in the version I've heard, they actually decide they'd rather be killed outright than crippled and left to die in the woods. Of course, when the innkeeper comes back, it turns out she was just asking how they wanted their food done, and they didn't understand the question because it was a local expression.
I assume there might be other versions where the travelers hear the conversation through the wall or something instead.