A learned and internationally acclaimed University of Iowa statistics professor once went for a walk in the northern Iowa countryside. He came upon a famer who was busily running his rather large sheep operation. The professor approached the farmer and then offered a unique wager. For the price of one of his sheep, the statistics professor proposed to tell the farmer exactly how many sheep he currently had on his farm.
The farmer was naturally intrigued by such an odd offer coming from this complete stranger so he decides to take the bet. The statistician immediately takes out his calculator. He carefully counts the feed bins, the number of sheep within view, the size of the barns and vehicle sheds, as well as the dimensions of the various water troughs. After doing some calculations, the professor confidently announced that, as of this morning, there were exactly 423 sheep on the farm.
The farmer was fairly amazed at the stranger’s numbers wizardry, but nonetheless had to concede that yes, the number of 423 sheep was indeed correct. With that, the professor snatched up one of the animals, and then began to walk away. The Iowa farmer begged the man to wait just a moment for a second bet.
The farmer then suggested that for the price of the animal the stranger was now carrying, he could tell the man exactly where he came from and what he did for a living. The overconfident stranger accepted the new wager and the farmer immediately said that the man obviously lived in Iowa City and that he taught statistics to both graduate and undergraduate students.
Amazed, the professor then asked, "how on earth could you have ever guessed all of that?" Well son, said the wise Iowa farmer, "if you’ll just put down my dog and come over here, I’ll tell you."
