The Monk's Secret

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, and 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 man breaks down in front of the same monastery. The monks a gain accept him, feed him, and 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. Some forty five years later, he returns and knocks on the door of the monastery. He says "I have trave l led 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 behind that door".

The monks give him the key. He unlocks the door and behind the wooden door is another door made of stone. The man unlocks the stone door also, only to find a door made of ruby. 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 and amethyst. Finally, the monks say, "This is the last door".

The man is relieved to no end. He opens the door, and behind that door he is amazed to find the source of that strange sound.

....But of course you can't be told what it is because you're not a monk.

Photo: Adrian Lazar (flickr).