"You're Not a Monk"
A man is driving down the road and breaks down
near a monastery. He goes to the monastery,
knocks on the door, and says, "My car broke
down. Do you think I could stay the night?"
The monks graciously accept him, feed him
dinner, even fix his car. As the man tries to fall
asleep, he hears a strange sound. The next
morning, he asks the monks what the sound
was, but they say, "We can't tell you. You're
not a monk."
The man is disappointed but thanks them
anyway and goes about his merry way.
Some years later, the same man breaks down in
front of the same monastery. The monks accept
him, feed him, even fix his car. That night, he
hears the same strange noise that he had heard
years earlier.
The next morning, he asks what it is, but the
monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a
monk."
The man says, "All right, all right. I'm *dying* to
know. If the only way I can find out what that
sound was is to become a monk, how do I
become a monk?"
The monks reply, "You must travel the earth and
tell us how many blades of grass there are and
the exact number of sand pebbles. When you
find these numbers, you will become a monk."
The man sets about his task. Forty-five years
later, he returns and knocks on the door of the
monastery. He says, "I have traveled the earth
and have found what you have asked for. There
are 145,236,284,232 blades of grass and
231,281,219,999,129,382 sand pebbles on the earth."
The monks reply, "Congratulations. You are now
a monk. We shall now show you the way to the
sound."
The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where
the head monk says, "The sound is right behind
that door."
The man reaches for the knob, but the door is
locked. He says, "Real funny. may I have the key?"
The monks give him the key, and he opens the door.
Behind the wooden door is another door made of
stone. The man demands the key to the stone door.
The monks give him the key, and he opens it, only
to find a door made of ruby. He demands another
key from the monks, who provide it. Behind that
door is *another* door, this one made of sapphire.
So it went until the man had gone through doors of
emerald, silver, topaz, amethyst...
Finally, the monks say, "This is the last key to the
last door."
The man is relieved to no end. He unlocks the door,
turns the knob, and behind that door he is amazed
to find the source of that strange sound.
But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk. |
