Eureka! The answer was in reading it upside down!

This anecdote is related by Kersi Meher-Homji and it relates a well-known utility all-rounder for India in the ‘70s.

Apparently, the all-rounder once went to a car mechanic: “I have lost a screw cap in my car bonnet on which is written 710. Can you replace it?”

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The mechanic was completely at loss what our all-rounder was talking about. So he asked his colleagues. But they too had no clue.

Our all-rounder was then asked to write what he was talking about and so he wrote “710”.

The mechanic was facing our all-rounder and saw everything upside down. But he now understood what the all-rounder was referring to: It was not 710; it was OIL!!! What he wanted was an OIL cap!