Two Irish companies were competing for a contract to put up telegraph poles. The authorities decided to test them, seeing which company could put up the most poles in an hour. The first company achieved twenty but when the second company's tally came in it was only two.

"I'm afraid you lost the job", the second company was told, "the other boys managed twenty to your two."

"Ah," came the reply, "but they cheated. Did you see how much they left sticking out of the ground?"