A GRAMOPHONE once made a bad habit out of parroting other people’s words. The musical instruments in the conservatory were really tired of his presence, as every time they tried to speak, he just repeated their words back at them. They also found it quite remarkable that he could remember what they had said hours, or even, days after they had said it, as well as faking their voices with great precision.

Nevertheless, they found him quite cranky. They avoided his company at all costs, believing he was always mocking them. Things got really out of hand when one day he managed to blow up an important rehearsal, repeating exactly what one musical instrument had told the other and confusing everyone.

"You're nothing but a parrot", the saxophone angrily told him.

"You're nothing but a parrot", the gramophone answered back, and the musical instruments that were present burst into laughter. The saxophone, however, didn’t find it amusing.

So, the next day, he coordinated with the other musical instruments to teach the gramophone a good lesson: they went out in the nearest marketplace and bought a big parrot with beautiful, adorned feathers in the colors of the rainbow, which they brought back to the music school and placed in the rehearsal room. They then hid behind chairs and columns and patiently waited for the gramophone to arrive.

"What do you know, a parrot!", the gramophone exclaimed as soon as he saw the big parrot.

"What do you know, a parrot!", said the parrot back, using the exact same voice as the gramophone. Then, he tried to talk to the bird, with the parrot repeating everything exactly as the gramophone had said it. He kept asking questions so as to understand how the exotic bird had made it to the rehearsal room, never to get an answer back, however. In the end, he started to feel that the parrot was making a fool of him.

"I can't even get a word out of you", the gramophone shouted angrily.

"I can't even get a word out of you!", the parrot replied. Then the other musical instruments, who were hiding behind the chairs of the music school and watching what was going on, burst into laughter. The gramophone on the other hand, became angrier than before as he felt the parrot had ridiculed him in front of the other musical instruments.

"Here's your lesson for today, not to parrot what others say all the time!", the saxophone told him and from that day on, the gramophone agreed to put an end to the bad habit of repeating others' words, instead only reminding them of melodies and sounds which they asked him to.