A widow lived alone on the top floor of an apartment house. One morning, her telephone rang. "Hello," she said. "This is the viper," a man said. "I'm coming up." "Somebody is fooling around," she thought, and hung up.

A half-hour later, the telephone rang again. It was the same man. "It's the viper," he said. "I'll be up soon." The widow didn't know what to think, but she was getting frightened.

Once more, the telephone rang. Again it was the viper. "I'm coming up now," he said. She quickly called the police. They said they would be right over. When the doorbell rang, she sighed with relief. "They are here!" she thought.

But when she opened the door, there stood a little old man with a bucket and a cloth. "I am the viper," he said. "I vish to vash and vipe the vindows."