What is Audit?

Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after
his sheep on the side of a deserted road. Suddenly a brand new Porsche
screeches to a halt. The driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit,
Cerutti shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, TAG-Heuer wrist-watch, and a Pierre
Cardin tie gets out and asks the shepherd, 'If I can tell you how many
sheep you have, will you give me one of them?' The shepherd looks at
the young man, then looks at the large flock of grazing sheep and
replies, 'Okay.'The young man parks the car, connects his laptop to
the mobile-fax, enters a NASA Website, scans the ground using his GPS,
opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with algorithms and pivot
tables. He then prints out a 150-page report on his high-tech
mini-printer, turns to the shepherd and says, ‘'You have exactly 1,586
sheep.' The shepherd cheers, 'That's correct, you can have your
sheep.'The young man takes one of the animals from the flock and puts
it in the back of his Porsche. The shepherd looks at him and asks, 'If
I guess your profession, will you return my animal to me?' The young
man answers, 'Yes, why not?' The shepherd says, 'You are an auditor.'
'How did you know?' asks the young man. 'Very simple,' answers the
shepherd.'Firstly, you came here without being wanted.Secondly, you
charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew. Thirdly, you
don't understand anything about my business.....Now can I have my dog
back? '