Ray and Bob, two government maintenance workers, were standing at the bottom of a flagpole, staring up at it.
A woman walking by stopped and asked, “What are you doing?”
“We’ve been asked to find out how tall the flagpole is,” Ray replied.
The woman looked up at the enormous pole.
“Why don’t you just measure it?”
Ray and Bob looked at each other.
“We don’t have a ladder long enough,” Bob explained.
The woman smiled.
“I think I can help.”
She walked over to the flagpole, pulled out a small screwdriver, and loosened a bolt at the base.
With a little effort, she carefully lowered the flagpole to the ground.
Then she pulled out a measuring tape and measured the pole from one end to the other.
“It’s exactly thirty feet,” she said.
She tightened the bolt, stood the flagpole back up, and walked away.
Ray and Bob stood there in silence.
Finally, Ray shook his head.
“Government workers,” he muttered.
“What?” Bob asked.
“They asked us to find the height, and she just gave us the answer.”
Bob nodded.
“Yeah. And she didn’t even tell us how tall it was standing up.”
Ray looked at him.
“Exactly.”
Bob sighed.
“Sometimes I think we make this job harder than it needs to be.”
Ray smiled.
“That’s why they hired us.”