English Original
A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW emerged from a dust cloud.
The driver, a young man in designer clothes, leaned out and asked, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have, will you give me a calf?"
Bud looked at the man, then at his grazing herd, and calmly replied, "Sure, why not?"
The young man parked, took out his laptop, connected it to his phone, and accessed a NASA website. He used a GPS satellite to pinpoint his location, then directed another satellite to take a high-resolution photo of the area.
He opened the photo in image-editing software and sent it to a processing facility in Germany. Within seconds, he received an email confirming the data was processed and stored. He then queried a database via his spreadsheet and, after a few minutes, got a response.
Finally, he printed a full-color, 150-page report on his portable printer and turned to Bud. "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."
"That's right. You can take a calf," said Bud. He watched, amused, as the young man selected an animal and put it in his car trunk.
Then Bud said, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what you do for a living, will you give me back my calf?"
The young man thought for a second. "Okay, why not?"
"You're a U.S. Congressman," said Bud.
"Wow! That's correct," said the young man, "but how did you know?"
"No guessing needed," answered the cowboy. "You showed up uninvited; you want payment for an answer I already knew to a question I never asked; you tried to show off how much smarter you are than me; and you don't know a thing about livestock—this is a herd of sheep. Now give me back my dog."
中文翻译
牛仔巴德正在加利福尼亚偏远山区牧场照看他的牧群，突然一辆崭新的宝马车从一团尘土中驶出。
司机是一位穿着名牌服装的年轻人，他探出车窗问道：“如果我能准确说出你有多少头牛和小牛，你能给我一头小牛吗？”
巴德看了看这个人，又看了看安静吃草的牧群，平静地回答：“当然，为什么不呢？”
年轻人停好车，拿出笔记本电脑连接到手机，访问了美国宇航局的网站。他使用GPS卫星精确定位，然后指挥另一颗卫星对该区域进行高分辨率拍摄。
他在图像编辑软件中打开照片，并将其发送到德国的一家处理机构。几秒钟内，他收到一封电子邮件，确认图像已处理且数据已存储。接着，他通过电子表格查询数据库，几分钟后得到了回复。
最后，他用便携式打印机打印出一份150页的彩色报告，转身对巴德说：“你正好有1586头牛和小牛。”
“没错。你可以带走一头小牛，”巴德说。他饶有兴趣地看着年轻人选了一头动物塞进汽车后备箱。
然后巴德说：“嘿，如果我能准确说出你的职业，你能把我的小牛还给我吗？”
年轻人想了一下。“好吧，为什么不呢？”
“你是美国国会议员，”巴德说。
“哇！说对了，”年轻人说，“但你是怎么知道的？”
“不需要猜，”牛仔回答。“你不请自来；你想为我早已知道答案、却从未提出的问题索取报酬；你试图炫耀你比我聪明多少；而且你对牲畜一无所知——这是一群羊。现在把我的狗还给我。”