Irish Counting

Subject: Irish counting

A construction site boss was interviewing men for a job, when
along came

Sheamus O’Leary.
The boss thought I’m not hiring that lazy Irishman, so he decided
to set a
test for Sheamus, hoping he wouldn’t be able to answer the
questions, and
he’d be able to refuse him the job without getting into an
argument.

The first question was, “Without using numbers, represent the
number 9.”

So Murphy says, “Dat’s easy” and proceeds to draw three trees.

The boss says,”What the hell’s that?”

Murphy says “Tree ‘n tree n’ tree makes noine.”

Fair enough, says the boss.

“Second question, same rules but represent 99.”

Murphy stares into space for a while, then makes a smudge on each
tree.
“Der ya go sir” he says.

The boss scratches his head and says, “How on earth do you get
that to
represent 99?”

Murphy says “Each tree’s dirty now! So it’s dirty tree, n’ dirty
tree
n’dirty tree, dats nointy noine.”

The boss is getting worried he’s going to have to hire him, so he
says,
“All right, question three. Same rules again but represent the
number 100″.

Murphy stares into space again, then he shouts, “Got it!” He makes
a
little mark at the base of each tree and says, “There ya go sir
one hundred!”

The boss looks at Murphy’s attempt and thinks, Ha! got him this
time.

“Go on Murphy, you must be mad if you think that represents a
hundred.”

Murphy leans forward and points to the marks at the tree bases and
says,
“A little dog comes along and craps by each tree, so now you’ve
got, dirty
tree an’ a turd, dirty tree an’ a turd, an’ dirty tree an’ a turd,
which
makes one hundred!

When would I be starting me job den?”