Here is the story--Frank, a former jewel thief, is in the not-so-early stage of dementia. He is pretty irascible, and it appears that predates his cognitive decline--but that didn't help, of course. He refuses supervised living and no one can stand to live with him so his son gets him a personal robot--this takes place in the not-too-distant future, so that is actually an option.
Frank is furious at first. He shuns the robot, but it turns out that the robot doesn't mind that. He ignores it. He goes about the things that he does best--cooking, cleaning, taking out the garbage, and gradually Frank starts to see that it might not be such a terrible idea to have help.
One day, Frank realizes that the robot might just be good for something other than just housework. He realizes that the robot can do things that a human cannot--like manipulate the dial on a safe so as to go through all the possible combinations of numbers--and all within minutes, rather the hours it would take man to perform the same task. Frank decides it is time for him to return to his life as a cat burglar and that the robot will be his right hand man. The robbery is the beginning of the end of the relationship between Frank and the robot, and the story is very bittersweet (and not giving too much away, we have absolutely no sympathy for the burglary victim). Very good use of comedy to point out some very difficult facts of life.
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