"Expensive screw" joke
This urban legend is said to happen to the "King of Shoemakers" Tomas Bata. (He was as important to Czech industry as Henry Ford I to the American one.)
Bata was driving through the country and suddenly he realized that something was wrong with his car. Fearing that he might get stuck in the road he stopped at a village and asked for help. The villains directed him to the local blacksmith.
The blacksmith inspected the engine, did something and the car was OK. Then he asked for 100 crowns. Bata was a bit discontent with paying so much money for a minute's work, so he asked for a detailed bill.
The blacksmith took a pencil and a scrap of paper and wrote:
fastened a screw: 2.00
knew which one: 98.00
--
total: 100.00
An old blacksmith relized he was soon going to quit working so hard. He picked out a strong young man to become his apprentice. The old fellow was crabby and exacting. "Don't ask me a lot of questions," he told the boy. "Just do whatever I tell you to do." more...
My grandfather worked in a blacksmith shop when he was a boy, and he used to tell me, when I was a little boy myself, how he had toughened himself up so he could stand the rigors of blacksmithing.
One story was how he had developed his arm and shoulder muscles. He more...