# Joke: the young man who couldn't keep a job

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Joke
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-joke-waiter-cashier-cemetery-attendant
- Themes: fault-finding, discontent, work, humour
- Life situations: job dissatisfaction, chronic complaining

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Friends find a bright but jobless young man work as a waiter; he quits after half a day — serving delicious food he can't eat is torture. They make him the cashier, out of sight of the food; he quits after half a day — counting money he can't pocket is worse. At last they get him the easiest job of all, sitting in the cemetery's gate cabin. After half a day he quits again: all day he sees everyone lying down while he has to sit up.

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

And this was a story of a young man. And he was really sort of, he's quite bright and passed his university or whatever, or school or whatever, but he couldn't get a job. And so what happened was that his friends tried to get him a job. You're getting a job somewhere, you get to work, you get some money for something. It's good exercise and a good experience for you. So, they got him a fairly simple job as as a waiter in one of the restaurants. You didn't have to have much skill about that. You just find out what a person wants and take it to the cooks or whatever and then they give them the food afterwards. And then just after half a day, this young man soon resigned. Why? What was the problem? He said, "well look, so if I give all this delicious food to everybody and I can't eat any of it for myself, there's so much suffering. I can't stand it any longer, half a day is enough." So, they say now what can we do with this guy and they came up with a solution and they said "okay you can actually be the cashier because the cashier, that little area there, is all cordoned off. So you can't see the food at all, maybe smelling it but not that much. And you can just get the bills, count the money, give the change. Easy!" So okay, I'll try that. So he became the cashier at the restaurant. After half a day he gave that up as well. I can't stand this any longer. It's even more torture than serving food which I can't eat. I count money which isn't mine. I count all the money but I can't put any of it in my pocket. Oh, that's so much torture. They said how can we just deal with somebody like this and get him a job so they talked around. And they finally came up with a solution. A brilliant solution. They said the local cemetery needs a cemetery attendant. There is a little light cabin in the front of the cemetery just where the main gate is. All you need to do is sit in there quietly and just make sure that the right people come in and they don't. No food, you can't see any food there. You can't see any money. So you should be able to do this; such simple job. He said okay I'll give it a try. After half a day, he resigned. I can't stand this any longer. They said, why? While I'm sitting in there most of the day and I see all these people lying down and I have to sit up.

## Teaching point

A fault-finding mind will find something wrong in any situation.

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

A young man quit as a waiter, then a cashier, then a cemetery gatekeeper, because everyone else got to lie down while he had to sit up. A fault-finder will find fault anywhere. If something is wrong with every job, house or partner, the problem may be the eyes doing the looking. Try enjoying what's in front of you.

## Source

- [The Fault Finding Mind | Ajahn Brahm | 7 May 2021](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bekYLQ5buRQ) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 3:05 to 6:04: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bekYLQ5buRQ&t=185s