Knowing where to knock...

Recently my husband sent his car for routine service and apart from that asked the supervisor to look into the rattling sound every time he starts the car which was quite annoying. He tried to locate the sound himself but of course to no avail. Now the car purrs thanks to the expertise of the mechanic. My husband told me  it  cost RM 150 just to locate and rectify the annoying sound!! That reminds me of a  short story i read which goes like this :-

A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure out how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man in his eighties who had been fixing ships since he was a young man. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully from top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there watching this man and hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently knock something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for $10,000.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:

Knocking with a hammer...... ......... $ 2.00
Knowing where to knock.......... ......... $ 9,998.00

Ain't that cool.