There was once a picnic for a large engineering company where three
employees were discussing how smart their dogs were, and it became
a bit of a contest. The first employee, an engineer, said his dog was
the smartest because it actually understood geometry. He called his
dog, named "T-square", told him to fetch some paper and a pencil, and
draw a circle, a triangle and a square. The dog did this without
hesitation. The second employee, an accountant, said this was
certainly impressive but his dog was smarter because he could do
arithmetic. His dog was named balance sheet. He told it to fetch a
dozen cookies from the picnic table, bring them back and divide them
into piles of three cookies each. Balance Sheet did this without any
problems. The third employee, a chemist, said both other dogs were
great but his dog, Beaker, was best because it understood weights
and measures. He told it to fetch a quart of milk and pour seven
ounces into a ten ounce glass. It did this flawlessly. All three
congratulated themselves on how smart their dogs were.
A fourth employee, a union man, had been watching this and laughed at
them. "Your dogs are morons!" he said. He roused his dog, named
Coffee Break, and said "OK boy, now show them what YOU can do."
Coffee Break proceeded to eat the cookies, drink the milk, soil the
papers, mount the other three dogs, then claimed to hurt his back while
mounting them, filed a grievance for unsafe working conditions, applied
for workman's compensation, and left for home on sick leave.