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The value of knowledge

A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young.

He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do.

After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something.

Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

construction-guy“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer…… …… ……… $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap……… …… ……… $ 9,998.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference! Keep studying hard. Don’t give up!

Author Unknown

{ 41 comments… add one }
  • Josias December 9, 2022, 8:34 am

    The was really good

  • Mouneesh October 7, 2022, 8:33 am

    Very super
    I Love this story

  • Mujaahid Shaik June 17, 2022, 11:25 am

    Great inspiration!! I inspired 👍

  • lydia March 29, 2022, 6:27 am

    nice and wonderful story and its encouragement

  • Koilraj February 17, 2022, 11:03 pm

    Really very good 👍

  • Jide bash September 30, 2021, 4:24 am

    Really inspiring story

  • Suraj May 5, 2021, 9:29 am

    Mind bogglingly story

  • Joy Animasahun September 7, 2020, 5:14 pm

    This is truly inspiring!! Great story

  • Payal December 30, 2019, 8:28 pm

    I love it☺ beautifully composed in short and meaningful story
    Lovely

  • Kakrot January 5, 2019, 8:31 am

    I want to meet that old man

  • Kakrot January 5, 2019, 8:30 am

    Good story . It highly inspired me

  • Arun September 11, 2016, 4:59 pm

    Really superb, very inspiring story. “Knowledge is power” today i have opened my eyes

  • SRD September 11, 2015, 1:19 am

    I love this Blog…

  • Crisj April 10, 2015, 5:16 am

    Its indeed a good story i have come to realise how powerful knowledge is in comparission with luck

  • Ammar November 23, 2014, 1:24 pm

    Wow!!! Amazing.:)

  • Ramesh April 19, 2014, 7:43 am

    Good story, it really inspired me.

  • Rakesh February 9, 2014, 8:38 am

    Sorry for the request, but I need that old man’s number…

  • Aishwary gaonkar October 7, 2013, 7:11 am

    A great story. We should make effort on a thing if we have its knowledge.

  • S.Krishna Kumar May 16, 2013, 5:05 am

    Simple but profound. Knowing is information. Putting it to use, we get experience. That experience gives us knowledge. Good story.

  • Harisskd May 14, 2013, 12:46 am

    I have come to realize how valuable knowledge is.:) Thanks for the story.

  • Nwadibia Nwafor Abraham Friday Igwe May 13, 2013, 4:36 pm

    The old man is acticulative and gentle, he is not faster than his shadow.

  • SANDEEP February 28, 2013, 9:58 am

    Wow very good story, To Get Success You Need 2% Of Action If you Have 98% of Knowledge. Otherwise you are a labour.

  • Pied Mon February 22, 2013, 7:49 am

    I like that old man 🙂

  • Subhanshu February 17, 2013, 12:19 pm

    Great! But nobody pays us for knowledge we posses but only for hours we spent 😉

  • Ria February 8, 2013, 7:53 pm

    The story is very simple but it gives a lot of meaning to me…

  • shruti February 7, 2013, 3:42 pm

    The old man knew his worth. It is necessary to know who u are, what u can do and what is ur goal.

  • Queen Arfa February 3, 2013, 12:34 am

    Hard work

  • Noeme D. Catayas February 2, 2013, 11:30 pm

    It’s amusing as well as inspiring! Learning is really an on-going process from womb to tomb.

  • Aash January 31, 2013, 12:27 pm

    AWESOME…!

  • Ami January 29, 2013, 3:09 pm

    Very nice story.

  • Rita Borg January 29, 2013, 1:53 pm

    The old man is very wise and a great teacher it is a lesson we all should follow to keep on learning.

  • Velicheti Sree Vidya January 27, 2013, 12:09 am

    Definitely, working hard without knowledge is a useless effort.
    Acting wise and smart makes one recognizable by all for their knowledge.

  • Bridetlin January 26, 2013, 5:36 am

    Yeah really true! Effort is useless unless you know how/what to do.. wisdom is the most needed to humankind for without this we can’t fix problem that is very easy…

  • Esther January 22, 2013, 8:31 am

    I have learned a great lesson. Thank you.

  • Ajay Kumar January 22, 2013, 2:33 am

    Very nice story, experience is a must.

  • vibha January 21, 2013, 7:57 am

    success = effort + knowledge

  • Aruna January 19, 2013, 1:19 am

    Effort is always important.

  • Aung Pan Thu January 19, 2013, 12:22 am

    I love the story very much. I have come to realize how valuable knowledge is.:) Thanks for the story.

  • Aye Chan Aung January 19, 2013, 12:16 am

    Really a good story which can prove that knowledge is power:) Thank you so much indeed for the story with valuable lesson:)

  • Mansoorsiddiqui January 18, 2013, 12:01 pm

    Really inspiring lesson.

  • Mmalolo January 18, 2013, 11:52 am

    Gud one there, I like the oldman itemizing.

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