Wisdom story: The monk who was counting sins of others

There was once a monk who lived in a village near a Buddhist temple, where he took his oath but left because of a disagreement of how most of the monks treated the villagers. He felt that most monks there were only good at counting sins of others and telling the same people how they should live without having any intent to actually help them. The monk on the other hand firmly believed that he was the one that would truly make a difference for everyone in the village and consequently prove to the monks in the monastery how wrong they were. The monk took a walk around the village every day and tried to help the people there, by giving advice and then revisiting them after some time to see how they did and if they needed more “guidance”. Then one day the monk noticed a woman just settled in the house opposite of his. The monk tried to talk to the woman but she was too shy to say anything to him and she always looked down, she never looked him in the eyes. The monk decided to give the woman her space but keep an eye on her to see what kind of help she needed as it was obvious to him that she needed it. So he stopped with his walks around the village and stayed in his house and watched across the street to see what was going on with his new neighbor and how he could help.

The monk noticed that only men were visiting his new neighbor and he recognized many of them. He realized what was going on and he felt very angry at her for doing what she was. In his anger, he walked over to her and started scolding her when she opened the door, “You are a great sinner. With your action, you show your lack of respect for your god every day and every night. Don’t you ever stop to think what will happen to you after your death?” The poor woman was very shaken by what the monk said and couldn’t say a word back at him to explain her situation. The whole time she kept looking down and listened very closely to what the monk was saying to her. Just before the monk left he made the woman promise to him that she would stop with what she was doing and that she will find a different way of making a living. When the monk came back to his house he felt good about how he handled that situation and believed that he had changed that woman’s life for the better. But the woman on the other side of the street prayed to God out of genuine repentance, begging for his forgiveness. She also asked her God to help her find another means of earning her living.  But she could find any other work and, after going hungry for a week, she returned to prostitution. Each time she gave her body to a stranger, she would pray to the Lord for forgiveness.

The whole time this was going on the monk never visited the woman to see if she needed any help. He sat at home and just watched what the woman would do. After one week he again noticed men entering her house. Annoyed that she did not take his advice, the monk thought to himself: “From now on, I’m going to keep a count of the number of men who go into that house, until one of us dies.” And from that moment on, he did nothing but watch how many men came, and for each man who went in, he added a stone to a pile of stones by his side. And from that day on he did what he said he would never do, he was counting sins of others. After some time, the monk decided to visit the woman across the street. When she opened the door the monk and said: “You see that pile of stones? Each stone represents a mortal sin committed by you, despite all my warnings.” After that, the monk left without saying anything else. The woman seeing how her sins accumulated began to tremble. That night she wept tears of real repentance and prayed to God: “O Lord, when will your mercy free me from this wretched life?”

Her prayer was heard. That same day, the angel of death came to her house and carried her off. On God’s orders, the angel crossed the street and took the monk with him too. The prostitute’s soul went straight up to Heaven, while the devil took the monk down into Hell. On the way there the monk and the woman passed each other and when the monk saw what was happening, he cried out: “Is this Your justice, O Lord? I spent my whole life in devotion, poverty, and a mission to help others and now I am carried off into Hell, while that woman, who lived all her life in sin, is allowed up to Heaven!” One of the angels hear the monk and replied: “You thought that God’s love meant counting sins of others and judging their behavior? While you filled your heart with the impurity of someone else’s sin, this woman prayed every day and night. In the end, you have become exactly that why you have left the monastery.” The monk tried to argue with the angel, “I was helping that woman, I was not counting sins!” The angel just pointed to the pile of stones and continued to escort the woman to Heaven.