Shepherd and Auditor

Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the side of a deserted road.

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Suddenly a brand new Porsche screeches to a halt.

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The driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit, Cerutti shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, TAG-Heuer wrist-watch, and a Pierre Cardin tie gets out and asks the shepherd,

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'If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?'

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The shepherd looks at the young man, then looks at the large flock of grazing sheep and replies,

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'Okay.'

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The young man parks the car, connects his laptop to the mobile-fax, enters a NASA Website, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with algorithms and pivot tables.

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He then prints out a 150-page report on his high-tech mini-printer, turns to the shepherd and says,

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'You have exactly 186 sheep.'

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The shepherd cheers,

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'That's correct, you can have your sheep.'

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The young man takes one of the animals from the flock and puts it in the back of his Porsche.

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The shepherd looks at him and asks,

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'If I guess your profession, will you return my animal to me?'

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The young man answers,

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'Yes, why not?'

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The shepherd says,

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'You are an auditor.'

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'How did you know?' asks the young man.

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'Very simple,' answers the shepherd.

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'Firstly, you came here without being wanted.

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Secondly, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew.

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Thirdly, you don't understand anything about my business.... '

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'...Now can I have my dog back?'

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Moral of the story ? Guess !