can someone tell me why this doesn't work please python 3

[garywood]

def ask_ok(prompt, retries=4, complaint="Yes or no, please!"):
    while True:
        password = input("enter something")
        if password in ('y', 'ye', 'yes'): return True
        if password in ('n', 'no', 'nope'): return False
        retries = retries - 1
        if retries < 0:
            raise IOError('refusenik user')
        print(complaint)
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list