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 notebook 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 1586 sheep." "That is correct;
take one of the sheep." said the shepherd. He watches the young man
select one of the animals and bundles 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?" " Well" 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
know nothing about my business.
