Tigerv8
06-03-2008, 01:56 PM
Several years ago, a ship building company built a new cargo vessel. The vessel was launched and all was well until the sea trials commenced. When the captain went to start the engines, nothing happened.
Well the ship's engineers checked everything and couldn't work out why the engine was not functioning.
So the engine manufacturer's engineers were called in. They spent days going over the engine and still couldn't find the problem.
After about a week, a grizzled old engineer in his dirty overalls was visiting the shipyard and heard about the problem engine. He approached the ship's owners and offered to have a go at fixing it. The owners, now quite worried about the future of the vessel, agreed to let him attempt to fix it.
The old man walked all around the engine, pushing this, pulling that and knocking here and there, nodding to himself as he went.
After a couple of hours, he reached into his toolbox and pulled out a hammer. He then picked a spot on the engine and hit it with a swift blow of the hammer.
To everyone's amazment, the engine burst into life and ran beautifully.
The engineer then presented the owners with his bill for $10,000.
One of the owners looked at him and said " That seems a bit high for the time you were here and you only hit it with a hammer. I want to see an itemised invoice for the work done."
The old engineer took out his pencil and another piece of paper and wrote:
" Tap with hammer............................................ ................................................$2
Knowing where to tap............................................... ....................................$9,998."
Well the ship's engineers checked everything and couldn't work out why the engine was not functioning.
So the engine manufacturer's engineers were called in. They spent days going over the engine and still couldn't find the problem.
After about a week, a grizzled old engineer in his dirty overalls was visiting the shipyard and heard about the problem engine. He approached the ship's owners and offered to have a go at fixing it. The owners, now quite worried about the future of the vessel, agreed to let him attempt to fix it.
The old man walked all around the engine, pushing this, pulling that and knocking here and there, nodding to himself as he went.
After a couple of hours, he reached into his toolbox and pulled out a hammer. He then picked a spot on the engine and hit it with a swift blow of the hammer.
To everyone's amazment, the engine burst into life and ran beautifully.
The engineer then presented the owners with his bill for $10,000.
One of the owners looked at him and said " That seems a bit high for the time you were here and you only hit it with a hammer. I want to see an itemised invoice for the work done."
The old engineer took out his pencil and another piece of paper and wrote:
" Tap with hammer............................................ ................................................$2
Knowing where to tap............................................... ....................................$9,998."