A new young monk named Brother Denny arrives at the San Pedro 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 of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript.

So, the new monk goes to the head abbot, Father Ernie, 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 subsequent copies.

The head abbot replies, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries but you make a good point, my son."

So, Father Ernie goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscript is held in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years.

Hours go by, and nobody sees the old abbot. So, Brother Denny gets worried and goes downstairs to look for the elder monk. He sees him banging his head against the floor. His forehead is all bloody and bruised, and he is crying, uncontrollably.

Brother Denny asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, father?"

With a choking voice, Father Ernie replies, "The word is "celebrate". wink