A
fellow stopped at a rural gas
station and, after filling his tank, he
paid the bill and bought a
soft drink. He stood by his car to drink his
cola and he watched a
couple of men working along the roadside. One man
would dig a hole
two or three feet deep and then move on. The other man
came along
behind and filled in the hole. While one was digging a new
hole, the
other was about 25 feet behind filling in the old. The men
worked
right past the fellow with the soft drink and went on down the
road.
„I can’t stand this,“ said the man tossing the can in a trash
container and heading down the road toward the men.
„Hold it, hold
it,“ he said to the men. „Can you tell me what’s
going on here
with this digging?“
„Well, we work for the county government, “
one of the men said.
„But one of you is digging a hole and the
other is filling it up.
You’re not accomplishing anything. Are
n’t you wasting the county’s
money?“
„You don’t
understand, mister,“ one of the men said, leaning on his
shovel and wiping
his brow. „Normally there’s three of us–me, Rodney
and Mike. I
dig the hole, Rodney sticks in the tree and Mike here puts
the dirt
back.“
„Yea,“ piped up Mike. „Now just because Rodney’s sick,
that don’t
mean we can’t work, does it?“
