What comes before Thursday

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A new monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned
to help the other monks in copying the old texts by
hand. He notices, however, that they are copying
from copies, not the original manuscripts.

So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask
him about this, pointing out that if there were an
error in the first copy, that error would be continued
in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk says, "We have been copying from
the copies for centuries, but you make a good point,
my son." So, he goes down into the cellar with one
of the copies to check it against the original.

Hours go by and nobody sees him. So, one of the monks
goes downstairs to look for him. Hearing sobbing coming
from the back of the cellar, he finds the old monk leaning
over one of the original books crying. He asks the old monk
what's wrong, and in a choked voice came the reply,

"The word is celebrate."

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