Monk - Strange Sound
A man is driving down the road and his car 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 same man is driving by and his car breaks down
again,
right in front of the same monastery. The monks again 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, then I'll do so. Tell me,
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 traveled the earth and have found what you have asked
for. There are 145,236,284,232 blades of grass and 31,281,219,999,129,382 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 you seek is behind that door."
the man reaches for the knob, but the door is locked. He says, "Very
funny. May I have the key?"
The monks give him the key, and he opens the door. Behind the wooden
door is
a stone door. 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 made of sapphire. So it went on, until
the man
had gone through doors of emerald, silver, topaz, and amethyst. He now
faced a
locked door made of diamond, and asked for the key.
