A shepherd and his flock

A shepherd and his flock

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 American man in an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd, “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”

The shepherd looks at this yuppie, then at his peacefully grazing flock before calmly answering, “Sure.”

The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his laptop 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 e-mail 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 1586 sheep.”

“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep.” says the shepherd. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the Shepherd says: ” If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?”

“Okay, why not,” the young man answers.

“You’re a consultant,” says the shepherd.

“That’s correct! How did you guess that?” asks the young man.

“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 crud about my business. Now give me back my dog.”