My friends, please meet the robot Botty. He is a little funny robot, made of metal and plastic. He has funny round eyes, antennas on the head, long hands and instead of legs – the wheels. It is easier for him to move around this way.
Robot Botty is very young, he is brand new. He was made by the scientists from the Scientific Laboratory. Therefore robot Botty is very smart – much smarter than many other robots around us. And he is also very mischievous.
You think he is sitting in his corner in the Laboratory? No. There he is. Riding down the main square of the city. He is learning the world. Everything is so interesting to him!
“What kind of stone is it?”
“Why is this flower yellow?”
“Where do the flies live?”
“Who is standing here in front of me?”
After asking the last question, Botty puts forward his arm (“zhzhzh”), pushes a man standing in front of him (“zhzhzh”) and moves forward. And he did so every time someone was on his way. Can you imagine it – just pushing people out of his way! How do you think, did these men like it? Why?
Of course not. They were shouting on Botty, pushing him and even hitting in response. And he could not understand – what is going on? Why people don’t like him? He so nice, skilful, riding here and learning the world.
When our robot was back in the Science Lab he told his father, professor Smarty, about this. Professor Smarty was one of the scientists who made Botty. And Botty was crying: he was just pushing people, and people were pushing in response! It was very insulting.
Professor Smarty quickly understood everything. He just forgot to put into to the Botty the module of Politeness. Botty is such a complex machine that it is easy to forget something when you are building him.
Luckily it is easy to put the module of politeness into the robot. Professor Smarty connected Botty to the computer and soon everything was alright – Botty became Polite. As all of the people are, as you are, my friends.
When Botty was riding on the street again, people were standing on his way again. But now Botty was just stopping and saying them: “Excuse me please, I need to go by”.
And believe it or not, people were giving him the way. Politeness is a really strong thing!
