Story: The Humble Handyman

At the heart of an affluent neighbourhood stood a prestigious private school. The school employed a handyman named John, who helped to keep the school tidy, maintain the buildings and move things in and out of the basement.

John was a quiet man who was happy to work on his own. He whistled a tune while he worked, and never noticed that the pupils were making fun of him. He tried to make friends with his colleagues, but they always had an excuse. They were just going to their class, even though it was the end of the day. Or they had to go to lunch, even when they’d just had breakfast.

One day, the headmistress called John into her office.

“John, the school is facing a budget crisis,” she said. “We need to reduce our costs a lot, and we need to do it quickly. John, you’re fired.”

“But why? Don’t I do a good job?” asked John.

“You do,” said the headmistress. “But all the other staff have told me that they don’t like you. You’re unusual, and you whistle too much. I can no longer afford to pay someone so unpleasant.”

After John left, the headmistress ate a bar of chocolate and played darts. But the school’s costs were still too high. Over the next few weeks, she cancelled school lunches, stopped the music lessons and closed the sports field.

Finally, she went into the science laboratory and gathered all the teachers.

“We have to sell all of the science and computer equipment,” she explained.

“But it’s all brand new!” the Head of Science exclaimed. “We only just bought it all! How are we meant to teach without it?”

“Why don’t you fire the handyman instead?” asked another teacher. “He doesn’t do anything useful.” The other teachers agreed. They were surprised to learn that he’d left weeks ago.

“There is no point complaining,” the headmistress concluded. “Once we sell the equipment, the budget crisis will be over. You will just have to teach science like they did in 1900. That’s how Einstein learned science, so I expect excellent results. Come and help me get the blackboards and chalk out of the basement.”

They all arrived in the room underground. In the dark, they could see some blinking lights. The headmistress switched on the main light, and everyone gasped.

The basement was filled with the school’s previous science and computer equipment. The headmistress had asked John to throw it away last year, because a lot of it was broken. Instead, he had kept it all here, and had been fixing it ever since.

“It’s working!” cried the Head of Science, inspecting the equipment. “Headmistress, we need John back to fix the rest of it.”

All of the teachers nodded their heads and stared at the headmistress. She took a deep breath, got out her phone and called John.

“I see,” she finished, putting the phone down.

“What did he say?” the other teachers asked.

“He’s made a lot of friends at his new school.”