[fielderLS3]

An old woman is a week away from her 80th birthday, and each of her three sons were looking for the perfect gift. All three had managed to become quite wealthy, and each wanted their gift to be quite memorable and outdo that of the other two.

The first son went out and bought here a brand new, fully loaded Mercedes S-Class. In addition, he also hired a full time chauffeur for her. Anytime she wanted to go anywhere, he would be available, and she would be riding in comfort and style.

The second son got wind if this, and felt he could do even better. He bought her a huge house on the beach, with an excellent view of the ocean.

When the third son found out, he didn't know what to do. How could he top that? He knew that his mother was very religious, and spoke with her priest often. He went to him figuring that he would have an insight into what type of gift would really be meaningful to her.

When the third son asked the priest what type of gift to get, he said he knew just the thing. He showed him a parrot that was being kept in the church. The priest said that this wasn't just any parrot. Just name any bible verse, and the parrot would recite it. The nuns had been training the birds like this for years and selling them to raise money for their mission work. Each bird took 10 years to train. The third son thought it was perfect, and bought the bird.

Then came the big day, mother's 80th birthday, and they all happily gave her their gifts. A week later, the first son got a letter. The mother appreciated the car and the driver. However, she said that she wasn't able to get out much at her age, and that she didn't really know what to do with the car and driver.

The second son also got a letter. Again, she was grateful for the house on the beach. However, she lived alone and had little need for all the space, and, becoming feeble at her age, was having a hard time keeping so many rooms up. Her eyesight had also begun to fail, and she was sad that she couldn't enjoy the beautiful view of the ocean.

Finally, the third son got a letter. She told him that his was the one gift that actually made sense. She was touched that the third son had actually put some thought into the gift instead of just throwing money at it. So to him, she said, "Thank you, the chicken was delicious."