Why Not Me?

John and George are two workers at a retail shop. They both come to work every day on time and are hard workers , but when promotion calls, their retiring elderly store manager chooses George as his successor. On the retiring manager’s final day, John notices the elderly manager quietly watching the two work in the store. John approaches him and after a brief exchange of pleasantries John starts asking his boss. ‘Why did you pick George for the promotion and not me?’ 

The boss is surprised at this and says: ‘You don’t know?’ When John nods, he says ‘Look, I’ll show you. Can you go to the supermarket and get me some bread? It’s for my lunch. John goes to the supermarket and gets some bread. When he comes back he tells him he also wants some meat. John goes to the supermarket again and gets the meat. ‘So what did I do wrong?’ He looks over at George and calls him over. ‘George, do you think you can go to the shops and get me some bread?’ George nods and goes over to the supermarket. When he comes back he is holding not just bread, but also meat and lettuce.

George says,’I thought you might’ve wanted a sandwich, so I also got some meat and lettuce for it. Here you go!’ 

After he left, the elderly manager turned to John and said: ‘Do you understand now?’