A shepherd is herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand
new Porsche Cayenne advances out of a dust cloud towards him.
The driver, a confident looking young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray
Ban sunglasses and a Yves St. Laurent tie, leans out of the window and asks
the shepherd, "If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your
flock, will you give me one?" The shepherd looks at the yuppie, then at his
peacefully grazing flock, and calmly answers,
"Sure! This I gotta see!"
The yuppie parks the SUV, whips out his palm pilot, connects it to a
cellphone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet. On the NASA page he
calls up a GPS satellite navigation system, scans
the area, and then opens up a database. It has some 60 Excel spreadsheets,
each with complex
formulas. Finally he prints out a 150-page report on his hi-tech
miniaturized printer, turns to our shepherd and says:
"You have here ... exactly 1,586 sheep!"
"Unbelievable! That's correct. As I agreed, you can take one of the
sheep,"says the shepherd.
He watches as the young man makes a selection and bundles it into his SUV.
Then the shepherd says,
"If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me my sheep
back?"
"Okay, sounds fair," answers the sleek, well-dressed young man.
"You are a consultant," says the shepherd, emphatically.
"That's correct!", exclaims the yuppie consultant, "How did you know that?"
"Easy" answers the shepherd. "You turn up here, although nobody called for
you. You want to be paid for the answer to a question that I already knew
the answer to. And finally, you know nothing about my business. Now give me
back my dog."