"Skill Bill" joke

There was a hardware engineer who had an exceptional gift for troubleshooting automotive robots. After serving his company loyally for more than 30 years, he happily retired. Several years later, the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem it was having with one of its multimillion-dollar machines.

The company had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine to work, but to no avail. In desperation, the company called on the retired engineer who had solved so many problems in the past.

He reluctantly took on the challenge. He spent a day studying the intricate and complex machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and stated, "This is where your problem is."

The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly.

The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his services. It demanded an itemized accounting of his charges. The engineer responded briefly:

One chalk mark: $1

Knowing where to put it: $49,999

The bill was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace.