An Italian man wants a job, but the foreman won't hire him until he passes a little math test...

"Here's your first question," the foreman said. "Without using numbers, represent the number 9." "With outa numbers?" the Italian says, "Datsa easy." And he proceeds to draw three trees. "What's this?" the boss asks. "Ave you gotta no brain? Tree anda tree and tree maka nine," says the Italian. "Fair enough," says the boss.

"Here's your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99." The Italian stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree. "Ere you go." The boss scratches his head and says, "How on earth do you get that to represent 99?" "Each of Da trees isa dirty now. So, it'sa dirty tree, anda dirty tree, anda dirty tree. Datsa 99." The boss is getting worried that he's going to actually have to hire this Italian guy, so he says,

"All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100." The Italian stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, "Ere you go. Ona hundred." The boss looks at the attempt. "You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!"...

The Italian leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and says, "A littla dog came along and crap by eacha tree. So now you gotta dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, anda dirty tree and a turd, dat maka one hundred... So, whena I start?"