Wally worked in a shop that sold clocks. One day his next door neighbor, Harry, came into his shop. Harry was very stingy. His stinginess made Wally very angry. Wally said to him, “When are you going to buy a clock?”
“Never,” Harry said, “I don’t need a clock.”
“Everyone needs a clock,” Wally said, “How do you know when it is time to get up?”
The man who lives on the other side of me turns on his radio at seven o’clock for the news.” Harry said. “I hear the announce say, ‘The time is seven o’clock. Here is the news.”
“OK. But how do you know when to go to work?” Wally wanted to know.
“By the time I get out of bed, wash and shave, it’s half past seven,” Harry said. “By the time I’ve eaten my breakfast of toast, jam and coffee, it’s eight o’clock, time to leave for the office. By the time I get to the bus station, it’s ten past eight. The bus arrives in a few minutes and by the time it gets to my stop, the time is half past eight. That’s the time I start work.”
“OK. But how do you know when it’s time to go home?” Wally said, getting angry.
“The factory bell rings,” Harry told him.
“How do you know when it’s time to go to bed?”
“The TV programmes comes to an end.”
By now Wally was really angry. “OK.” He shouted. “Now tell me what would happen if you woke up in the middle of night and wanted to know the time?”
“That’s easy,” Harry said. “I’ve got a hammer.”
“A hammer! What good is a hammer when you want to know the time?”
“I’d use it to knock on your wall. You’d shout at me, ‘What are you doing knocking on my wall at three o’clock in the morning?’”