Originally Posted by Ann
A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand new BMW appeared out of a dust cloud coming towards him. The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out of 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 mobile 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 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 sheep?”
“OK, why not,” answered the young man.
“Clearly, you are a consultant,” said the shepherd.
“That’s correct,” replied the young man, “but how did you guess that?”
“No guessing required,” answered 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 know absolutely nothing about my business. Now, give me back my dog.