A fellow stopped at a rural gas station, filled his tank, and took a break by his car while drinking a soda. As he relaxed, he watched a couple of men working along the roadside.

One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other man came along behind him by about 25 feet and filled in the hole. The men worked right past the fellow with the soft drink and went on down the road.

Overcome by curiosity, the fellow headed for the first man.

"Hey there," he said to the men. "Can you tell me what’s going on here with this digging?"

"We work for the county government," one of the men said.

"But one of you is digging a hole and the other is filling it up. Isn’t that a waste of the county’s money?"

"Well," one of the men replied, "normally there’s three of us — me, Rodney, and Mike. I dig the hole, Rodney sticks in the tree, and Mike here puts the dirt back."

"Yeah," Mike added. "Just because Rodney’s sick, that don’t mean we can’t work, does it?"