Small potatoes

One day a manager from a large multi-national conglomerate has a heart attack. His doctor recommended he take time off and go to a spa to relax for several weeks after his discharge from hospital.

The manager heeds his advice. After a couple of days he got very bored. One day out for a walk he becomes curious about the the farm across the way, so he goes over to investigate. He meets the farmer and asks him if he has any jobs he needs doing.

The farmer told him to collect all of the cow shit from the pasture. The manager rolls up his sleeves and digs in.

The farmer chuckled. He thought to himself that this man, coming from the city, working his entire life sitting on his butt in an office, would take over a week to finish the job- if he doesn’t quit first. But to his surprise the manager finishes the job in less than one day.

The next day the manager greets the farmer again, and asks him if he has any other work. The farmer gives the manager a more difficult job: cut the heads off 500 chickens.

The farmer was sure that the manager would cut and run, but at the end of the day the job was complete.

The next morning, the manager is at his doorstep bright and early, raring to go. The farmer asks the manager to divide a bag of potatoes into two categories: small potatoes, and big potatoes.

At the end of the day the farmer saw that the manager was sitting in front of the original potato bags, the potatoes completely unsorted.

The farmer asks the manager: “How is that you were able to complete two difficult jobs, but then when it came to something as simple as sorting potatoes,  you were not able to do such a simple chore?”

The manager answered: “Listen, all my life I’ve been cutting off heads and dealing with shit, but now you are asking me to make decisions? Pah.”