Counting the cost of knowing it all

IN some foreign country a priest, a lawyer and an engineer are about to be guillotined

IN some foreign country a priest, a lawyer and an engineer are about to be guillotined. The priest puts his head on the block, they pull the rope and nothing happens; he declares that he's been saved by divine intervention, so he's let go.

The lawyer is then put on the block. Again the rope doesn't release the blade; he claims he can't be executed twice for the same crime and is set free too.

Finally they grab the engineer and shove his head into the guillotine. He looks up at the release mechanism and says: "Wait a minute, I see your problem...