NASA was interviewing professionals they were considering to send to Mars. The touchy part was that only one guy could go and it would be a one way trip, the guy never returning to Earth.
The interviewer asked the first applicant, a lawyer, how much he wanted to be paid for going. “One million dollars,” the lawyer answered. “And I want to donate it all to my alma mater — Columbia University.”
The next applicant was a doctor, and the interviewer asked him the same question. “Two millions dollars,” the doctor said. “I want to give a million to my family and leave the other million for the advancement of medical research at the University of Texas.”
The last applicant was an engineer from the Ohio State University. When asked how much money he wanted, he whispered in the interviewer’s ear, “Three million dollars.” “Why so much more than the others?” the interviewer asked. The engineer replied, “You give me three million, I’ll give you one million, I’ll keep a million, and we’ll send the lawyer.”
Hat tip to Kon Berkovich (with literary license by me)