Голицынский, 6-е издание – Артикль – Упражнение 45

In a small town in the East there once was a man who had a parrot. The parrot was taught to say the words: “There is no doubt about it.” It used to repeat these words, all day long. Every time it was asked a question, it gave the same answer, “There is no doubt about it.” One day the man decided to sell the bird; so he put the parrot into the cage and went to the market with it. “Twenty pounds for a very clever parrot!” he cried. A man who was passing by heard this and turned to the parrot. “Are you worth twenty pounds?” he asked. “There is no doubt about it!” answered the parrot. “What a clever parrot!” said the man and bought the bird. He took the parrot home and invited his friends to look at the clever bird. The friends came and looked at the parrot and talked to it. Now you must know that the man was not rich. In fact, he was often short of money. So a week or two later, sitting in an armchair and looking at the parrot, he said, “What a fool I was to throw away such a lot of money!” “There is no doubt about it!” cried the parrot. And this time the bird was right.