There Was An Engineer

There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing

all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for

over 30 years, he happily retired. Many years later the

company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible

problem they were having with one of their multimillion

dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else

to get the machine to work but to no avail. In desperation,

they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many

of their problems in the past. The engineer reluctantly took

the challenge. He spent a day studying the huge machine. At

the end of the day, he marked a small “x” in chalk on a

particular component of the machine and stated, “This is

where your problem is.” The part was replaced and the

machine worked perfectly again. The co mpany received a bill

for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded

an itemized accounting of his charges The engineer responded

briefly: “One chalk mark $1 Knowing where to put it

$49,999”