A man strolls into the paint section of a hardware store and walks up to the assistant.
“I’d like a pint of canary colored paint”, he says to the assistant.
“Certainly”, says the assistant, “would you mind if I ask why you need it?”
“It’s my parakeet”, the man says. “You see, I want to enter him in a canary contest. He sings so sweetly that I know he’s sure to win. He’s just the wrong color though”.
“Well, you can’t do that”, the assistant says. “The chemicals in the paint will almost certainly kill the poor thing”.
“No, they won’t”, the man replies.
“Listen my friend, I’ll bet you ten bucks that your parakeet dies if you try to paint him”.
“You’re on!” the man says.
Two days later, the man walks back into the hardware store, looking very sheepish and puts ten bucks on the counter in front of the assistant.
“So the paint killed your bird then?” the assistant asks him.
“Indirectly”, the man says. “He seemed to handle the paint okay, but he didn’t survive the sanding between coats”.
Image used under a Collective Commons License from https://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/5503560834