Mysterious Sound

I got this story in an e-mail from a friend. It drove me nuts. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!


A man is driving down a country 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, show him to a room,
and even fix his car.

As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. A sound
unlike anything he's ever heard before. The Sirens that nearly seduced
Odysseus into crashing his ship comes to his mind.

He doesn't sleep that night. He tosses and turns trying to figure out
what could possibly be making such a seductive 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."



Distraught, the man is forced to leave. Years later, after never being able
to forget that sound, the man goes back to the monastery and pleads for
the answer again.

The Monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a Monk."

The man says, "If the only way I can find out what is making that
beautiful sound is to become a Monk, then please, make me 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 grains of sand. When
you find the answer to these questions, you will have become a Monk."

The man sets about his task.

After years of searching he returns as a gray-haired old man and
knocks on the door of the monastery. A Monk answers. He is taken
before a gathering of all the Monks.

"In my quest to find what makes that beautiful sound, I traveled the
earth and have found what you asked for. By design, the world is in
a state of perpetual change. Only God knows what you ask. All a
man can know is himself, and only then if he is honest and reflective
and willing to strip away self deception."

The Monks reply, "Congratulations You have become a Monk. We
shall now show you the way to the mystery of the sacred sound."

The Monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk
says, "The sound is beyond that door."

The Monks give him the key, and he opens the door.

Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone.

The man is given the key to the stone door and he opens it, only
to find a door made of ruby.

And so it went that he needed keys to doors of emerald, pearl and
diamond.

Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold. The sound has now
become very clear and definite. The Monks say, "This is the last
key to the last door."

The man is apprehensive to no end. His life's wish is behind that
door!

With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns the knob, and
slowly pushes the door open. Falling to his knees, he is utterly
amazed to discover the source of that haunting and seductive sound.....
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But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a Monk.


~Ellentia