How Far Was It?

At a trial, an attorney was putting witnesses through an exacting
cross-examination, and was taking great delight into forcing witnesses to admit
that they did not remember every single detail of an automobile accident. While
the lawyer knew that no witness has a perfect memory, he had honed a skill in
exploiting minor inconsistencies and lapses of memory in order to challenge the
credibility of honest witnesses. After a series of scathing cross-examinations,
he was looking forward to his examination of yet another witness.


"Did you actually see the accident?" he asked.


The witness responded with a polite, "Yes, sir."


"How far away were you when the accident happened?"


"I was Thirty-four feet, seven and three quarter�s inches away from the point
of collision."


"Thirty-four feet, seven and three quarter inches?" the lawyer asked,
sarcastically, "Do you expect us to believe that your memory is so good, and
your sense of distance is so precise, that months after the accident you can
come into court and give that type of detail?"


The witness was unphased. "Sir, I had a hunch that some obnoxious, know-it-all
lawyer would ask me the distance, and would try to make it seem like I was lying
if I could not give an exact answer. So I got a tape measure, and measured out
the exact distance."