The Burglar

Jeevan Sivasubramaniam Posted by Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Managing Director, Editorial, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.



A man was robbing a house when he suddenly heard a voice say "God is watching." Alarmed, he spun around to see who was speaking to be confronted by a parrot, who again repeated, "God is watching."

"What an idiotic thing to train your bird to say," said the robber, to which the bird promptly responded, "I'm not an idiot. God is watching." The robber decided to have a little fun with the bird asked, "What's your name, you silly parrot?"

"Prophet," said the parrot.

"Prophet?" laughed the robber. "What kind of idiot owners name their parrot prophet?"

"The same ones who named their rottweiler God," responded the parrot.

Moral of the Story: Be wary of the assumptions you make about language usage across cultures. What may be common practice in one environment may have different connotations in another.