"I shall remove all his offensive words and his capacity for thought reading. I can do it in a few hours."

Francisco felt somewhat cheated as the advertisement didn't say anything at all about the robot being rude. He must ring the company and make a complaint, but not on Christmas Eve.

He read the instructions aloud but in his confusion he didn't find the section on robot training which he needed most just now.

The robot glared at Francisco as a savage bull glares at a matador in a bullfighting arena. Of course, he didn't like his owner reading the instructions but he kept quite for the moment.

"Listen, Linda," said Francisco nervously.

"This robot is called Robot-Lasse, but in its female form it is known as Robot-Anna."

Electric flashes appeared in the robot's eyes.

"If you insult me again, you damned foreigner, I shall..."

Francisco stared panic-stricken at the robot and wondered whether it was also a racist?

"I promise not to say anything stupid," said Francisco.