posted 20 years ago
A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when
suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust cloud towards him.
The driver, a young man in a Broni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses
and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd:
"If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you
give me one?"
The shepherd looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his
peacefully-grazing flock and calmly answered, "Sure." The yuppie parked
his car, whipped out his IBM ThinkPad and connected it to a cell phone,
then he surfed to a NASA page on the Internet where he
called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, and then
opened up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He
sent an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a
response.
Finally, he prints out a 150 page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized
printer then turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586
sheep". "That is correct, take one of the sheep," said the shepherd.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and bundled it into
his car.
Then the shepherd says: "If I can tell you exactly what your business
is, will you give me back my sheep?"
"OK, why not," answered the young man.
"Clearly, you are a consultant" said the shepherd.
"That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"
"No guessing required," answers the shepherd. "You turned up here,
although nobody called you. Produced a 150-page report for something that can be printed on one page. You want to get paid for an answer I
already knew, to a question I never asked, and you don't know crap about
my business. Now give me back my dog".