Jane was driving along Interstate 5 on her way to San Diego when her old car suddenly died on her. Naturally, she called out a local mechanic to help her.
The mechanic arrived and said, “Howdy mam, what seems to be the problem?”
“Well”, said Jane, “I was just driving along when suddenly I lost all power and the car came to a complete standstill.”
“Well let me just take a look for you mam”, said the mechanic.
At this point, he lifts the hood and gives the engine a cursory glance before whacking something very hard with a hammer.
“Try it now mam”, said the mechanic.
To Jane’s amazement, when she turned the key, the car burst into life again.
“That’s incredible!” said Jane. “You’ve been here for less than 30 seconds and you’ve already got it going again. I’m very grateful. Thank you.”
“All part of the service mam!” the mechanic responded, before adding, “That’ll be $250.”
Jane couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. “How much?” she said. “How can it be $250 when all you did was hit something with a hammer?”
“Well mam”, said the mechanic, “I can produce an itemised bill if you like.”
“Yes please”, said Jane, “you do that! It’ll make interesting reading.”
So the mechanic started tapping something into an iPad and then he printed it out on a printer in his truck. He then handed Jane the bill. It read:
