Bubbles in the Bathtub

A shepherd is 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 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 the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully-grazing flock and calmly answers, "Sure."

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his IBM Thinkpad and connects it to a cell phone, then he surfs to a NASA page on the Internet where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system, scans the area, and then opens up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He sends an e-mail on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives 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," says 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 it back to me?"

"Okay, why not," answers the young man.

"Clearly, you are a consultant" says 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 wanted 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."