Apostolic Friends Forum

I hope this doesn't offend anyone.....

> 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?
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> 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; a sound like no other that he has ever heard. The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, We can't tell you. You're not a monk.
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> 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.
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> The monks again accept him, feed him, and even fix his car.
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> That night, he hears the same strange mesmerizing sound that he had heard years earlier.
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> The next morning, he asks what the sound was, but the monks reply,
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> We can't tell you. You're not a monk.
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> The man says, All right, all right. I'm dying to know.
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> If the only way I can find out what that sound was, is to become a monk,
> how do I become a monk?
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> 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.
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> 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 devoted my life to the task demanded and have found what you had asked for.
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> There are 371,145,236,284,232 blades of grass and 231,281,219,999,129,382 sand pebbles on the earth.
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> The monks reply, "Congratulations, you are correct and now you are a
> monk".
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> We shall now show you the way to the sound.
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> The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, the
> sound is behind that door.
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> The man reaches for the knob, but the door is locked. He asks, "May I
> have the key"?
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> The monks give him the key, and he opens the door.
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> Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone. The man requests
> the key to the stone door.
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> The monks give him the key, and he opens it, only to find a door made of
> ruby.
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> He demands another key from the monks, who provide it. Behind that door is
> another door, this one made of sapphire. And so it went until the man had
> gone through doors of emerald,...
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> ...silver, topaz, and amethyst.
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> Finally, the monks say, "This is the key to the last door".
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> The man is relieved to no end. He unlocks the door, turns the knob, and
> behind that door he is astonished to find the source of that strange sound. > It is truly an amazing and unbelievable sight.
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> . . . But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk.

Ron