Ready for this monkish humour!
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.