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 Brioni 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 130 page report on his miniaturized printer then
turns to the shepherd and says,... "You have exactly 1586 sheep". "That is
correct; take one of the sheep" said the shepherd. He watches the young man
select one of the animals and bundle it into his car.
Then the shepherd says: "If I can tell you exactly what your business is,
will you give me back my animal?" "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. 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".