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What the Younger Accountant Learns from the Retiring

By Liz Gold
December 18, 2008

A young accountant spends a week at his new office with the retiring accountant he is replacing. Each and every morning as the more experienced accountant begins the day, he opens his desk drawer, takes out a worn envelope, removes a yellowing sheet of paper, reads it, nods his head, looks around the room with renewed vigor, returns the envelope to the drawer, and then begins his day's work. After he retires, the new accountant can hardly wait to read for himself the message contained in the envelope in the drawer, particularly since he feels so inadequate in replacing the far wiser and more highly esteemed accountant. Surely, he thinks to himself, it must contain the great secret to his success, a wondrous treasure of inspiration and motivation. His fingers tremble anxiously as he removes the mysterious envelope from the drawer and reads the following message: "Debits in the column toward the file cabinet. Credits in the column toward the window."

This is a joke. This is only a joke. More accountant humor can be found here.

2 Comments

When I was an accounting professor I told the old story of the ship captain with a paper in his safe. ... After he died suddenly, the new captain looked at the paper. It said, "port left - starboard right."

Then I said "He had a brother who was an accountant. His paper said..."

Posted by: Roberta L | December 19, 2008 4:02 PM

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Reminds me of the old saying: Accountants never die. They just loose their balance.

Posted by: Brian K | December 19, 2008 1:20 PM

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