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It was a cold and dark night. A man was traveling alone, nervous because he was driving on the side of a mountain. He made each turn carefully and slowly.
Suddenly, he heard a strange noise which startled him. Unfortunately, he then lost control, and drove straight off the mountain. Screaming, he vainly tried to find a way to land safely. But it was too late. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the jagged, rocky ground growing closer by the second.
The traveler woke up to find himself in a comfortable bed situated in a large room. Miraculously, his head managed to come out of the accident unscathed, but his limbs were badly beaten. He was surprised to see that someone had put his foot in a sort of old-fashioned cast.
When observing the room around him, he noticed it had an archaic look to it. 'Where on earth am I,' he thought. He noticed a pair of worn wooden crutches placed beside his bed. 'I'll go see who lives here,' he decided, picking up the crutches.
When he opened a blue door in the wall, he found himself in a large, open courtyard. "Oh, you are awake," he heard a man say in the distance, who immediately ran to greet him. "Welcome, guest," the strange man said hospitably. He could tell by his outfit that this man was a monk.
"How did you find me?" the traveler asked. "Your accident," responded the monk, "occured very close to our monastery here. The noise of your crash was so great that it woke everyone up, and when we went to see what happened, we found you." The traveler exhaled deeply. "Thank you for coming to help me," he said.
"You are welcome to roam about the premises," said the monk. And so the man did just that, exploring the mysterious abbey all day, and having an unexpectedly good dinner in the evening.
That night, he tried to fall asleep, but something was keeping him awake: a strange, mystical sound as beautiful as a choir of angels, quietly filling the room. The traveler sat up in bed, and pulled a flashlight out of his pocket. 'Where could that wonderful sound possibly be coming from,' he wondered. Slowly, he shifted across the room. It wasn't coming from under the bed, above the ceiling, or the blue door.
Then, he noticed at the far end of the large room he was in, a GREEN door that he hadn't noticed before. When pressing his ear against it, he found the sound to be louder than ever. "It must be behind this door," he muttered quietly. He attempted to open the door, but to his annoyance, it was locked very tightly. "Tomorrow," he mumbled, "I find out."
Morning came, and the traveler was eager to learn what secrets were hidden behind that door. Upon spotting the monk that had greeted him, he dashed over to have his questions answered.
"What's behind that green door?" he asked frantically. "I have to know what could make such a wonderful sound!" The monk coughed. "We can't tell you," he stated, "you're not a monk."
The traveler started to get mad at him, but suddenly realized what he must say. "Then I'll become one," he declared. "What do have to do to be one? I'll do anything!" The monk replied slowly, "Well, you'll have to count every blade of grass, and every grain of sand on earth. It will require much traveling. Only then can you become a monk."
He began to hesitate, but the sound was so beautiful and mysterious that the traveler couldn't imagine going the rest of his life without seeing what the source was. "If I don't know what's making that sound, I'll go mad," he told the monk. "I will complete your tasks."
So the traveler set out on his quest, trekking to all four corners of the earth, numbering all the sand and grass he could find. It was a journey that took decades, but the reminder that one day, he would finally know the cause of that gorgeous sound, was his drive to press onward.
At last, the traveler returned, an older and wiser man, to that monastery. "Monks," he exclaimed, "I have found what you sought. I have counted every blade of grass and grain of sand." He handed the monks pages and pages filled with tallies of how many he found.
"Well, you have fulfilled our request," said the monks. "Follow us, and we will show you what waits behind the door."
They all gathered around the old green door. "Here is the key," said a monk, handing him a shining golden key. The man took it slowly. 'Was it all worth it?' he thought. 'Will what I see really be worth the time I spent trying to get here?'
But nothing could have prepared him for what was behind the door. For when he unlocked it, what he saw was so wonderful, so marvelous that he instictively bowed down in reverence. Tears welling up in his eyes, he whispered, "It is-beautiful!"
What was behind the door, you ask?
Well, I can't tell you. You're not a monk.
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