Italian Man and the Boss

An Italian man with a heavy accent wants a job, but the boss won't hire him until he passes a little math test. "Here's your first question," the boss says.

"Without using numbers, represent the number 9."

"Withouta numbers?" the Italian says, "Datsa easy." And he proceeds to draw three trees.

"What's this?" the boss asks.

"Ava you gotta no brain? Tree and tree and tree make a nine," says the Italian.

"Fair enough," says the boss. "Here's your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99."

The Italian stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree. "Erra you go."

The boss scratches his head and says, "How on earth does that represent 99?"

"Each of da trees is a dirty now. So, it's dirty tree and dirty tree and dirty tree. Datta is a 99."

The boss says "All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100."

The Italian stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, "Erra you go. One hundred."

The boss looks at the attempt. "You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!"

The Italian leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and says, "A little dogga came along and crapa by eacha tree. So now you gotta dirty tree and a turd a dirty tree and a turd and a dirty tree and a turd, datta makea one hundred. So, when I a start?"