At the end of the tax year, the Tax Office sent a tax inspector to audit the books of a local hospital.
While the taxman was checking the books, he turned to the executive of the hospital and said
“I notice you buy a lot of bandages. I imagine there’s a lot of wastage there. What do you do with the end of the roll when there’s too little left to be of any use?”
“Good question,” noted the executive. “We save them up and send them back to the bandage company and every once in a while, they send us a free roll.”
“Oh,” replied the taxman, somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer.
However, he was now well mounted on his favourite hobby horse and ready to be critical.“What about all these plaster purchases? What do you do with what’s left over after setting a cast on a patient?”
“Ah, yes,” replied the executive, who actually hadn’t a clue, but rising to the challenge he said, “We save that too, and send it back to the manufacturer and every so often they send us a free bag of plaster.”
“My, my, an answer for everything!” responded the auditor, who also fancied himself a bit of a wit. “What do you do with all the remains from the circumcision surgeries?”
“Here, too, we do not waste,” answered the executive. “What we do is save all the little foreskins and send them to the tax office, and about once a year they send us a complete prick.”
