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.

Several 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 “y”  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.  The company demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.

The engineer responded briefly:

            One chalk mark: $ 1.00 
            Knowing where to put it:  $49,999.00 
            It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace.