All That Suffering For Nothing

A new young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned
to help the other monks in copying the old canons and laws
of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all are
copying from copies, not from the original manuscript.

So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this,
pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the
first copy, it would never be picked up. In fact, that error
would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk says, "We have been copying from these
copies for centuries, but you do make a good point, my son."
So, he goes down the stairs into the dark caves underneath
the monastery where the original manuscript is held in a
locked vault that has not been opened for hundreds of years.

Hours go by and the old abbot does not return. The young
monk becomes worried and goes downstairs to look for him.
He finds him banging his head against the wall. His forehead
is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.

The young monk rushes to his side, "What's wrong, father?"

With a choking voice, the old abbot replies,
"The word is celebrate!"