A Lesson in Persistence (Or Never Doubt Your Hunches.)

My dad used to tell this story and swore it was true.

There once was a man whom we will call 'Pete.' I don't really know his name but we need to call him something and 'Pete' works as well as anything.

He worked hard in a factory where one of the perks was that he could borrow tools as long as he signed them out with the security guard who was stationed at the factory entry gate.

Almost every Friday, Pete would push a wheelbarrow loaded with tools up to the guard, sign the sheet which listed each tool and leave. Every Monday he would bring the tools back, go over the borrowed inventory list with the guard and return the tools.

"What are you building, Pete?" the guard would periodically ask.

"Oh nuthin' much." Pete would always answer.

This went on for months and months and the plant supervisor would watch Pete wheel out the tools each Friday.

"I have a hunch he's stealing tools." the supervisor thought to himself.

So each Monday afternoon, he would stroll down to the security guard's station and go over the list of Pete's borrowed tools. And every Tuesday he would find Pete and ask him what he was building that he needed so many tools. And each time, Pete would answer,

"Nuthin' much."

"I just have a hunch.." the supervisor thought to himself.

This supervisor was a quick thinking man and he decided he would do a bit of investigating but no matter how many times he checked that growing list of borrowed tools, he would always find each and every one had been returned on Monday morning.

After almost a year of this, Pete was handed a pink slip.

"I don't understand why I'm being fired!" he roared.

"Well, Pete," the supervisor calmly said, "You know all those times you borrowed a wheelbarrow full of tools?"

"Well, yeah, but you know I returned each and every one of them!"

"Maybe so, Pete. But you stole 50 wheelbarrows."

The moral? Follow your hunches.