Arkansas Workers

A fellow stopped at a rural petrol station and, after filling
his tank, he paid the bill and bought a soft drink. As he stood
by his car, drinking his Pepsi, he noticed a couple of men
working along the roadside.


One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move
on. The other man came along behind and filled in the hole.
While one was digging a new hole, the other was about 25 feet
behind filling in the hole.


The men worked right past the fellow with the Pepsi and went on
down the road. "I can't stand this," said the man, tossing the
can in a recycling bin and heading down the road toward the men.


"Hold it, hold it," he said to the men. "Can you tell me what's
going on here with this digging?"


"Well, we work for the state of Arkansas," one of the men said.


"But one of you is digging a hole and the other fills it up.
You're not accomplishing anything. Aren't you wasting the
state's money?"


"You don't understand, mister," one of the men said, leaning on
his shovel and wiping his brow. "Normally there's three of
us--me, Rodney and Mike.


I dig the hole, Rodney sticks in the tree and Mike here puts the
dirt back. Now just because Rodney's sick, that don't mean that
Mike and me can't work."