A man walks into a pet store, looking to buy a parrot. The store owner shows him a beautiful green parrot with a red tail.
"This parrot can do everything!" the store owner boasts. "It can talk, sing, and even solve puzzles."
The man is impressed and decides to buy the parrot. He takes it home and sets it up in a nice cage in his living room. The parrot immediately starts talking up a storm, chatting away about everything from the weather to the man's taste in music.
But after a few days, the man starts to notice something strange. Every night, when he goes to bed, the parrot starts shouting and screaming and making a huge racket. It keeps him up all night and he is at his wits' end.
Finally, the man decides to take the parrot back to the pet store and demand a refund. He storms in and tells the store owner about the parrot's behavior.
The store owner looks surprised and says, "That's strange. Did you remember to cover the cage at night?"
The man shakes his head. "No, I didn't think to do that. Why?"
The store owner chuckles and says, "Well, you see, this parrot used to belong to a magician. He's used to performing late into the night. So, if you cover the cage, he'll think it's showtime and go to sleep peacefully."
The man is relieved and follows the store owner's advice. That night, he covers the cage and the parrot falls silent. He drifts off to sleep with a smile on his face, grateful for the solution to his noisy parrot problem.
The next morning, he wakes up to find the cage empty. Panicked, he rushes to the living room, only to find the parrot sitting on the couch, wearing a tiny top hat and holding a deck of cards.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!" the parrot squawks. "Tonight, I will be performing a never-before-seen magic show! Watch closely as I make this man's sanity disappear!"