The Treasury
of Knowledge
The farmer's tractor wouldn't work. All the
attempts that he and his friends made to repair
it were to no avail. Finally the farmer persuaded
himself to ask an expert in to look at it. The
expert looked at the tractor, pressed the starter
button, lifted the hood, and looked at everything
very closely. Finally he picked up a hammer,
took aim at a particular point in the engine,
and struck one enormous blow. The engine now
worked properly and chugged away as if there
had never had been any problem at all.
When the expert
gave the farmer his invoice, the farmer was
astonished and angry. "What, you want fifty
ducats just for one blow with a hammer?"
"My dear
friend," said the expert, "I'm only
charging one ducat for the hammer blow. I have
to charge forty-nine ducats for knowing where
to hit."
