The young clerk's responsibilities included bringing the judge a
hot cup of coffee at the start of every day. Each morning the judge
was enraged that the coffee cup arrived two-thirds full. The clerk
explained that he had to rush to get the coffee delivered while it
was still hot, which caused him to spill much of it along the
way.
None of the judge's yelling and insults produced a full cup of
coffee, until he finally threatened to cut the clerk's pay by
one-third if he continued to produce one-third less than the judge
wanted. The next morning he was greeted with a cup of coffee that
was full to the brim, and the next morning and the morning after
that.
The judge couldn't resist gloating over his success and smugly
complimented the clerk on his new technique. "Oh, there's not much
to it," admitted the clerk happily, "I take some coffee in my mouth
right outside the coffee room, and spit it back in when I get
outside your office."
