A shepherd was in the country watching his flock of sheep when a brand new Jeep Cherokee screeched to a halt before him. Putting down his cell phone, the driver, a young man wearing Ray Bans, a Brooks Brothers pinstripe suit and Gucci shoes, leans out the Jeep's window yells to the shepherd: "If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

The shepherd gazes at his flock scattered peacefully across the countryside and calmly replies: "Sure."

Our "yuppie" gets out of the Jeep, whips out his laptop, connects through the Internet via his cellular phone to the NASA site, accessing the GPS satellite, navigational system. Scanning the area, he creates an Excel database with dozens of spreadsheets and complex macros. From his high-tech miniature printer gushes forth a 150 page Draft Report.

Reviewing this Draft, he turns to the shepherd and says: "You have exactly 1,586 sheep!"

Shrugging in response to this information, the shepherd replies: "This is correct, go ahead and take one of my sheep."

He watches while the young man selects an animal and puts it into the back of the Jeep.

Then the shepherd asks: 'If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me my animal back?"

"Sure, why not?" responds the confident, young man.

"You are a Consultant," says the shepherd.

"You are right! How did you guess?" the young man replies in amazement.

"Oh, it's easy", says the shepherd. " You show up here when no one invited you. You want to be paid for information which I already have. And, finally, you don't know ANYTHING about my business, because you just took my dog."

Submitted by: H.D.Johns, Ph.D.
Rockville, MD
hdj1@erols.com