A man who had recently bought a female parakeet with a salty vocabulary got a call from his minister telling him that he was planning to stop by the following week. Worried about the bird's language, he called a friend who had two well-behaved male birds. One recited the Lord's Prayer, while the other held a rosary in its claws and repeated Hail Marys. "Would it be okay if I brought my bird over for a few days?" he asked. "Maybe it will pick up some good habits from yours." The friend agreed, so the man took his female parakeet over and put her in the cage next to that of the two devout males. Suddenly, the first male parakeet stopped praying and turned to the other. "You can knock it off now," he said. "We got what we were praying for."