A Man's Car Breaks Down Near a Monastery...

A man is driving down the countryside in China 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, fix his car, and prepare a meal for the man. Stuffed, the man is lead to a room where he is to stay for the night before departing. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange scream behind a door in the monastery. Although it was brief and faint, he can not stop thinking about the noise, and is unable to sleep that night.
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.
The man attempts to forget about the sound, but every time he thought about it, it came back to haunt him.
Years later, the man went 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 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 these answers, you will have become a monk."
The man sets about his task.

After years of searching and traveling to monasteries throughout the world, 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 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.
"In order to get past this door, you must travel to a monastery on foot 10 miles South East of our current location, and retrieve the ancient stone key" the Monk informs him.
So the man hikes 10 miles South east, informs the other monks of his cause, and is rewarded the key.
He returns and opens the stone door… to find a door made of ruby.
"In order to go past this door, you must retrieve the ruby of the ancients, found in a monastery in the nearby mountains, about 130 miles North, on foot."
So the man packs up, and once again on foot, spends 2 weeks traveling 130 miles to the monastery and back.
He opens the ruby door, only to find a door made of solid gold. The monks say, "Only one person at a time may enter through this door. This door requires no key." The monk exits the hallway, and closes the doors behind him.
As the man touches the door, the noise that had been haunting him was heard again. The scream, once faint, now distinct.
With trembling hands, he turns the knob, and slowly pushes the door open. He falls to his knees upon seeing the source of the sound...



But, of course, I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk.