Money For Doing Nothing

The owner of a large shop in an English town one day wanted to see if everything was all right in his shop. In one of the rooms he saw a big boy sitting on a box. The boy did not do anything. The owner of the shop looked at him for a moment. As the boy went on sitting, doing nothing, the owner got angry. “How much are you paid a week?” he asked the boy. “Sixteen shillings”, was the boy’s answer.

The owner went to the office to get sixteen shillings. Then he came back to the place where the boy was still sitting. “Here’s a week’s money for you”, he said. “And now you may go. I don’t want boys here who do not work”. The boy took the money and went away.

Two hours later the owner asked the secretary, “How long has the boy worked here? What kind of a boy is he?”

The secretary answered, “I don’t know anything about him. He has never worked here. He was waiting for a packet when you came”.