- Good morning, young man. I haven't seen you before. Do you belong to the nearby monastery?
- Yes, I entered as a novice three months ago.
- How charming! I'm Sister Judith. What's your name?
- My name is Paul. Actually it is Brother Paul now since I moved into the monastery.
- And how is your new life at the monastery, Brother Paul?
- Oh, it's hard. So much to learn. And you have to sleep in your clothes so that you can get up without delay every night for the canonical prayers. It's the same for you, I suppose?
- Of course it is. But I'm used to it, you know, I've been a nun for seven years. Do you have a good novice master?
- Well...
- Not so good then. What is he like?
- He is hard. He is especially hard when he preaches chastity. If I don't stay away from women, I'll go to hell, he says.
- Mmm, interesting. Do you believe that?
- Of course I do.
- Poor novice!
- What?
- But don't you miss the contact with the girls?
- I do!
- A short and clear answer. Does it bother you?
- Yes!
- How does it bother you?
- Oh my God, I couldn't possibly tell you, not a woman, and especially not a nun!
- Why not then? So you have wet dreams?
- What? Wet dreams?
- You ignorant boy, wet dreams are dreams about sex. So you have wet dreams, don't you?
- How do you know that?
- All men your age have wet dreams.
- I have sinful dreams, yes. They bother me so much. And I get so ashamed. When I confess them to my priest, he always asks me for all the details, and then he tells me to pray more often so that God can free me from my sinful fantasies. And I pray and I pray and I pray. But it doesn't help. Not one bit. I am afraid that the devil has gotten hold of me.
- Poor boy! Why do you think your fantasies are sinful?
- But sex is sinful. That's what my parents say, and my master says, and the priest says, and my abbot says, and....
- My dear novice, you are here with me now because of sex. That's how children are conceived, don't you know?
- Well, yes, but sex is only allowed within marriage, isn't it?
- Is it?
- The Church says so.
- Sure it does. But do you really think that the cardinals and priests and monks and nuns practice what they preach?
- Yes, of course they do, don't they?
- No, my dear novice, they don't. Now listen to a wise nun who knows a lot about life; the devil has not got you!
- Oh, he hasn't? Are you sure? My master warned me that the devil might get me if I didn't stop fantasizing about women.
- You innocent novice, your sexual fantasies are natural. God created you with them. So just calm down. And by the way, stop talking about them with your priest and your master.
- But our abbot always preaches about the virtue of chastity. He is such a holy man; I really look up to him.
- Well, you abbot...... Do you want to know what he did yesterday?
- What do you mean, did he do something special?
- Yes and no, he did what he does every Sunday.
- What did he do then?
- Well, yesterday he visited our abbess in her private room. Well there he undressed her and then himself. And then they lay naked on her bed.
- Heaven, what! But how do you know that?