Formatted Content:
The Spoon
Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant and noticed something unusual: the waiter who took our order had a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed odd, but I ignored it.
When the busboy brought water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his pocket. Looking around, I realized that all the staff had spoons tucked into their shirts.
Curiosity got the best of me, so when the waiter returned with our soup, I asked,
“Why the spoon?”
He explained,
“The restaurant’s owners hired Anderson Consulting, Harvard-trained efficiency experts, to improve our operations. After months of statistical analysis, they discovered that customers drop their spoons 73.84% more often than any other utensil. That’s about three spoons per table per hour. By having spare spoons ready, we reduce trips to the kitchen and save 1.5 man-hours per shift.”
As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon. Without missing a beat, the waiter handed me his spare.
“I’ll grab another spoon when I head to the kitchen later,” he added with a grin.
I was genuinely impressed with their efficiency… until I noticed something even stranger: a thin string was hanging out of the waiter’s fly. Glancing around, I saw all the waiters had the same string dangling.
Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked,
“Excuse me, but what’s with the string?”
Lowering his voice, he replied,
“Ah, you’re observant! The same consulting firm discovered that we could save time in the restroom. By tying this string to… you know what… we can pull it out without touching it. This cuts down handwashing time by 76.39%.”
I nodded, half-impressed and half-shocked. But another question popped into my head,
“Wait… if the string helps you pull it out, how do you get it back in?”
He leaned in, lowered his voice even further, and whispered,
“I don’t know about the others… but I use the spoon.” 😳🥄
