# Joke: the tortoises escaped

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Joke
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-joke-tortoises-escaped
- Themes: humour, meditation
- Life situations: after a retreat, returning to work

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

After one of his retreats, a student goes back to his job at Perth Zoo so peaceful he can barely walk or talk. The head keeper puts him in charge of the tortoise enclosure. At lunchtime the gate is open and all the tortoises have escaped. 'What happened?' 'Well... I... opened the gate... and whoosh!'

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

this is what happened after one of my meditation retreats you know you get so peaceful and so cool you know it's so peaceful that you can't even walk fast and you can't talk fast so one of my students he went to work on a Monday morning and his boss realized this was a very difficult person to actually to you know have as your your um to work for you because he was speaking so slowly but fortunately his job was actually working in Perth Zoo so the head keeper there said what can I do with this guy just come off a retreat and said I've got a very good job for you this morning you can look after the tortoise enclosure yes I will look uh the tour toss sis and he walked very slowly because you can't do things fast after a lot of deep meditation what really slowly to the tortoise the enclosure much lower than that but you know you get bored you walk out if I keep on like this too long so at lunch time the head keeper decided to check up on him how he was he went to the tortoise enclosure you know what the gate was open and all the tortoises said has escaped he said what happened and the man said well I oh turned the gate and whoosh

## Teaching point

Told as a light joke on how slow deep meditation makes you — 'it's all relative'.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A zookeeper came back from retreat so peaceful the tortoises escaped while he opened the gate: whoosh. Ajahn Brahm finds that very funny. Then he gets serious. Fear of what might happen next steals the peace we already have, and usually what we feared never comes. Enjoy this moment.

## Source

- [Dealing with Fear | Ajahn Brahm | 25 Nov 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymIPqrdbNz8) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 17:27 to 19:19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymIPqrdbNz8&t=1047s

Other tellings of this story:

- [How to Manage Responsibilities | Ajahn Brahm | 21 June 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E8GTX-NZkQ) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:02:24 to 1:04:22: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E8GTX-NZkQ&t=3744s