Why? Because he was clever and came up with a different answer than the one you were looking for? Because of your made up inference that the gallows is better than the church?
Now, of course, we don’t expect a gravedigger to be an expert teacher but this kind of questioning reminds me of the kind of questions new teachers will sometimes ask before they learn how to ask open questions. They will ask a question that is not unrelated to a “What number am I thinking of?” type of question. “Uh, 9? Are you thinking of 9? I don’t know. “