Rockingham Remembered
Short Stories
A shepherd was herding his flock in a
remote pasture when suddenly a
brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust
cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Broni suit,
Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL
tie, leaned out the window and asked the
shepherd,..........  "If I tell you exactly how
many sheep you have in your flock, will
you give me one?"

The shepherd looked at the man, obviously
a yuppie, then looked at his
peacefully-grazing flock and calmly
answered, "Sure."

The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his
IBM Thinkpad and connected it to a cell
phone, then he surfed to a NASA page on
the internet where he called up a GPS
satellite navigation system, scanned the
area, and then opened up a database and
an Excel spreadsheet with complex
formulas. He sent an email on his
Blackberry and, after a few minutes,
received a response. Finally, he prints out
a 130 page report on his miniaturized
printer then turns to the shepherd and
says,.........  "You have exactly 1586
sheep".

"That is correct; take one of the sheep"
said the shepherd.  He watches the young
man select one of the animals and bundle
it into his car.

Then the shepherd says: "If I can tell you
exactly what your business is,
will you give me back my animal ?"  "OK,
why not" answered the young man.

"Clearly, you are a consultant" said the
shepherd.

"That's correct" says the yuppie, "but how
did you guess that?"

"No guessing required" answers the
shepherd. "You turned up here although
nobody called you. You want to get paid
for an answer I already knew, to a
question I never asked, and you don't
know crap about my business.... Now give
me back my dog".
Consultants