My mom has prayed the daily rosary for as long as I can remember. We used to say it together as a family. At home, she always used a large wooden rosary she had owned for many years.
After we kids had moved away, she started praying with the devoted group of parishioners who said a rosary after each weekday mass. At church, she began using a new set of plastic rosary beads she kept in her purse. An elderly gentleman named Sam led the prayers, and the others faithfully responded.

The count of "Hail Marys" through five mysteries everyday was always accurate except for the third decade. Here, as my mom fingered the last "Hail Mary" bead, Sam would always say one more "Hail Mary" and naturally everyone would give the "Holy Mary" response. "There he goes again," she'd think to herself as he began the "extra" prayer. "Why does he always say eleven 'Ave Marias' in the third decade?"

That pattern continued for several years until one day when my mom left her purse in the car and had to borrow a pair of rosaries from the lady sitting next to her. Lo and behold, this time when my mom fingered the final "Hail Mary" bead of the third decade, Sam dutifully followed with the "Glory Be."

This prompted my mom to do something she otherwise wouldn't have thought of: to check the rosary beads in her purse - that set only contained nine beads in the third decade!