There was a mill owner in England at the end of the 19^th century. The boiler that powered his factory broke down. Every day that passed he became increasingly worried. He was losing money and fretted constantly. He hired the best firms available to try and sort the problem but to no avail.

One afternoon a man walked in the door without an appointment.

“I hear your boiler is giving you problems”, said the unassuming man carrying a small bag.

“It is – and what of it”, said the mill owner.

“Well, I’m here to fix it for you.”

The mill owner laughed. “Ha. You honestly think you can do what the best minds in the land have spent weeks trying to do. Look at you. You are just one man with a small bag of tools. I really don’t think you will get far, but go ahead, I could do with some distraction.”

The mill owner walked with the man to the boiler room. There in the centre of a large room was the source of all the heartache. The big hulk of metal that should have been powering the mill through the miles of pipe-work that snaked it’s way through every inch of the factory. The sounds of clanking, hissing and knocking could be heard but the sound of idle machinery was deafening.

With an exaggerated flourish of his hand the mill owner introduced the boiler to the unassuming man and his small bag of tools. Ignoring the theatrics of the mill owner, the man produced a small rubber mallet from his bag.

Quietly and without any fussy he began tapping on the various pipes coming from the boiler. While tapping, or after tapping, he listened carefully to the language of the pipes. After about 15 minutes had passed, he walked to back to his bag and picked up a large wooden mallet.

He walked towards a complex looking section of piping and reaching up, he gave a firm and powerful thump with the mallet. The effect was immediate. Water began to flow again, steam pumped and machines started turning again.

The mill owner was overjoyed and thanked the man profusely. He was so happy that he told the man to double his usual price. The man said that wouldn’t be necessary and he would send his regular bill by post the following week.

A week passed and when the bill finally arrived the mill owner couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The bill was for £100 – a huge amount of money at the time. He had paid similar amounts to others that tried to fix the problem. The difference was they had spent days rather than 15 minutes. This would simply not do. He instructed his secretary to write back and ask for a detailed breakdown of the bill.

The reply came soon after

For 15 minutes of tapping        £1
For knowing where to tap        £99

Grand Total                           £100

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A brief snippet of a twitter conversation a few weeks ago brought this story to mind. Someone with a wonderful talent for taking photographs had to deal with a nasty customer who had no appreciation for the work that goes in to making the perfect image.

The person was left shaking at the end of the conversation and quite rightly decided that it would be better off not having a nasty person as a customer.

Sadly, there are a lot of mill owners out there today and I’m sure we’ve all encountered them. You know the sort of person who is ever so grateful for you fixing their computer and then balks at having to pay. Or the person who wants a precious old photograph restored to its former glory and resents even paying a reasonable hourly rate – never mind the “knowing where to tap” rate.

I’d love to hear other examples of the modern day mill owner as you have encountered them. the comments are open and “I’m listening”.