Where to Put the X

There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical.:

After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired.:

Many years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multimillion dollar machines.:

They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine to work but to no avail.:

In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past.:

The engineer reluctantly took the challenge.:

He spent a day studying the huge 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 again:

The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service.:

They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.:

The engineer responded briefly: "One chalk mark $1. Knowing where to put it - $49,999"
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