A lazy manager

There was a company in Bedford, OH whose chief product was a dog food but when this episode took place they were canning a Russian stew called Torshunka? for shipment to that war torn country. I have included this information just to emphasize that this is a true event that happened right after WWII. With the help of my office, they had returned a process controller to the factory for repair. About a week after it had been returned to them, I received a phone call from their plant engineer telling me that the instrument had been returned and was not working . He asked me to visit the plant.
The next day I went to Bedford and stopped in to investigate their complaint. What I am about to report is absolutely true. The engineer accompanied me to the spot where the controller was installed and then left. I then opened the door of the controller revealing its internals. The inside of the case was stuffed with newspaper and some of the moveable inner parts were wrapped with string to prevent their damage during shipment. I untied the knots, removed the strings and the newspaper which I carefully unfolded and flattened. Needless to say, the controller worked fine. When the engineer returned for a report I announced,” I know what was wrong with the controller. I removed this newspaper; it's out of date, it’s from last week”.
He said,” You’re joking !”
I said,” Yes I am!” and I left.