The Second Opinion

The first workshop said that the car needed a new part and that the work would take two days. Silke asked whether it could wait until the spring, and was told that it could not.

She went to a second workshop because the price was high, and not because she thought the first one was wrong. Petrov looked at the same part for twenty minutes.

He said that the part was worn but not dangerous, and that he would change it in the autumn. Silke asked whether the first workshop had been wrong. He said no.

The difference, he explained, was not what they saw but what they were answering. One had answered whether the part was as good as new. The other had answered whether it was safe until October.

Silke had the work done in the autumn and thought about it often. Two people can look at the same thing, say different things and both be right — if nobody asks them the same question.