A man buys a donkey, and upon getting him home, he finds that it is impossible to get him to do the least work. When hitched to a cart, he stands idle with a placid look upon his asinine face.
The man's frustration mounts day by day until he is faced with either shooting the animal or hiring an expert to assist him. In an attempt to salvage his investment, he makes the call.
The expert arrives the next day in a shiny truck and asks him what the problem is. "Well, this donkey just won't work -- He just stands there staring off into space and grazing." So the expert goes to his truck, and gets a three foot long piece of two by four pine. He takes up a good, solid stance, and...
WHAM!
...smacks the donkey upside his head. The donkey falls down on his ass, shakes his head, stands back up, twitches his ears a couple of times, and then proceeds to pull the cart he's still hitched to in circles around the yard.
The donkey's owner is flabbergasted. "What the hell did you do that for?"
The expert rolls his eyes, and delivers his answer with beatific certitude: "Sometimes you have to get their attention first."