Once upon a time, there was a monk studying in a monastery, and one day a question about the teachings occurred to him. It was not long since he had entered the monastery, and he was eager to be a good student. Therefore he approached the abbot of the monastery, greeted him in the appropriate way and set forth his question.

To the surprise of the monk, when the abbot heard the question he did not answer but began to laugh heartily. The monk waited patiently for an answer, but after some more laughter, the abbot simply clapped the monk on the shoulder and smiling, walked away.

Perplexed, the monk resumed his daily routine, but now his question had been forgotten. Instead he was deeply disturbed that the abbot had laughed at him. All that day, and all the next he fretted and fumed at what he felt to be the humiliation of being laughed at. Finally, he went again to the abbot, saluted him, and made his complaint about the abbot’s laughter.

The abbot looked at him sadly, and said, “My brother, I see that you are young in this path. In fact you are not yet a monk. At the moment, you are even less than a clown.”

The monk stared at his abbot in astonishment. “Not a monk? Less than a clown?” he repeated. “What do you mean?”

“A real monk,” said the abbot, “cares nothing what others think of him – neither praise nor scorn matter, because he does not live to satisfy other people. As for a clown, well, if he makes others laugh, he feels happy.”