An Elderly Man Wants A Job

An elderly man wants a job, but the foreman won’t hire him

until he passes a little maths test: “Here is your first

question.” The foreman says. “Without using numbers,

represent the number nine?” “Without numbers?” The old

man says. “That’s easy.” And he proceeds to draw three

trees. “What’s this?” The boss asks. “Have you no

brain? Tree plus tree plus tree makes nine.” Says the old

man. “Fair enough.” Says the boss. “Here’s your

second question. Use the same rules, but this time the

number is 99?” The man stares into space for a while, then

picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a

smudge on each tree and hands it back. The boss scratches

his head and says. “How on earth do you get that to

represent 99?” “Each of the trees is dirty now. So,

it’s a dirty tree plus a dirty tree plus a dirty tree.

That makes 99.” “All right, last question. Same rules

again, but represent the number 100?” The old man stares

into space again; he then picks up the picture and makes a

little mark at the base of each tree and hands it back. The

boss looks at the man’s picture. “You must be nuts if

you think that represents a hundred?” The old man leans

forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and

whispers. “A little dog came along and pooped by each

tree. So now you got dirty tree and a turd, plus dirty tree

and a turd, plus dirty tree and a turd, which makes 100.”