A manager is on a hike with three of his engineers. On a nearby hill he spots three wild apple trees hanging full of tasty red apples. He tells his engineers “It would be neat to collect and sell those!”.

The decent engineer immediately wanders off to his tree to get the apples. Standing in front of the tree he figures he’ll need a ladder to get all of the apples. So he starts collecting a few logs and fallen branches and after about two hours he ends up with something that somewhat resembles a ladder. He starts climbing the tree and carefully picks the apples. When he can’t reach one he uses his climbing skills to get there. However, when a branch broke under his weight, he could barely manage to grab another one and the manager nearly got a stroke. In the evening he’s done though and brings back all the apples.

The good engineer also goes to his tree to get the apples. He, too, figures he’ll need a ladder, but he gathers some of the low hanging fruits first. He tells the manager to sell those on the market and buy him a nice ladder for the money. When the manager finally delivers a ladder, he starts collecting the apples. As the steel ladder is not perfectly suited for climbing everywhere he spends a lot of time adjusting its height and re-positioning it. But in the early evening he brings back all the apples.

The best engineer firstly does not do a single step in the direction of his tree. Instead he’s asking the manager weird questions about apple quality and industrial apple harvesting. Knowing it’s his best engineer the manager answers patiently. After about ten minutes the manager gets really nervous and wonders if the engineer is going to get him any apples at all. But just then eventually the engineer heads to the tree and shakes it a little. Not all apples fall down, but most of them, and some don’t look perfect anymore, but still the manager starts collecting the fruits of his labor with a content face.

No trees were harmed during the making of this story.