They go with a White House official to examine the fence.

The English contractor takes out a tape measure and does some

measuring, then works on some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says,

"I figure the job will cost $ 900- $ 400 for materials, $ 400 for labour and $ 100 profit for me."

The German contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $ 700 . . . .$ 300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $ 100 profit for me."

The Indian contractor doesn"t measure or do any figuring, but leans over to the White House official and whispers: " $ 2,700. "

The official incredulously says, "You didn"t even measure like the

other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"

"Easy," the Indian explains, "$ 1,000 for you, $ 1,000 for me and

we hire the guy from Germany to do the work!"