[TeMPOraL]

In the limit, you reach the level of that joke I remember hearing as a kid (and I think it dates to post-WWII rebuilding / soviet era). One possible retelling:

An outside inspection comes to a busy construction site. As they watch the workers running with wheelbarrows, back and forth between material storage and active construction, they notice that all the wheelbarrows are empty. They flag a foreman, and ask him, "why are all these workers pushing empty wheelbarrows around?", to which the foreman replies, "we're so swamped with work, there's no time to load them!".

[eimrine]

Also heared the story in my childhood. The reason they are keep doing that is that the loader guy is missing and they are not going to be paid unless a reward from some work.