Fabulous Monastery: Prologue

Once upon a time the people of a community decided to establish a monastery in order to give glory to God, provide edification for the populace, and give young men with no regular occupation a place to hang out. As it turned out, the community did well, and the monastery was run by clever people, and the young men who had hung out there grew old and some of them left part of their money to the monastery.

Ever since the invention of wealth, men have striven to accumulate it, and some have accumulated rather substantial piles thereof. These accumulations tend to be curtailed by the great ineluctables of death and taxes. Not so for the monastery. The community had arranged for it not to pay taxes and it did not die, but its friends did, often leaving it their spare cash in so doing. When an early donor left it half his cash and his library, they renamed the monastery "The Monastery" in his honor.

Centuries passed. Wise management, death, and no taxes inflated its wealth, until its resources exceeded those of most small countries. It became such a popular place for young men (and now, young women) to hang out that competition to hang out at the Monastery became a bitter and pitted rite of passage for the young and clever.

And now the citizens of that community that had given it birth looked on The Monastery and regarded its vast wealth with envy. "What is this monastery," they asked, "that we should not tax it?"

And there we shall begin.

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