The Monk's Secret

A man is driving down the road when his car breaks down near a monastery. He knocks on the door and asks, "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—a sound like no other he has ever heard before. 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 on his way. Some years later, the same man breaks down in front of the monastery again. The monks accept him, feed him, and fix his car. That night, he hears the same strange, mesmerizing sound that he had heard years earlier. The next morning, he asks what the sound was, 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 is is to become a monk, how do I become a monk?" The monks say, "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 devoted my life to the task you asked for. There are 371,145,236,284,232 blades of grass and 231,281,219,999,129,382 pebbles of sand 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 asks, "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 requests 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 the key from the monks, who provide it. Behind that door is another door made of sapphire. And so it went until the man had gone through doors of silver, emerald, topaz, and amethyst. Finally, the monks say, "This is the key for the last door." The man is relieved to no end. He unlocks the door, and behind it, he is astonished to find the source of the sound. It is a truly amazing and unbelievable sight... But I can't tell you what it is, because you're not a monk.