he Monk's Ceremonial Wine

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

In the Alpine Mountains in Lilliland was an order of monks. Their vineyards would produce renowned wine for religious ceremonies in the monastery and also shared it with other orders in neighboring countries. The annual wine harvest was so large that the monks would have the farmhands of Lilliland come to the monastery to help in the picking of the grapes and the processing of the wine.

The citizens who were asked by the monks to participate in the harvest were very pleased to help. In fact, one of the rewards of helping is that the monks would give the helpers as many bottles of the wine as they could carry to their homes in Lilliland.

Baron Von Lodge was becoming concerned because for several weeks after each harvest, the helpers would wander around the Lilliland Center Square in a mild drunken stupor. They would walk into each other at all hours of the night and cause an undesirable scene. The noise that they would make would keep people awake at night when they were trying to sleep.

The Baron decided to have a meeting with the Alpine Monastery. After the meeting was concluded the monks became aware of the problem and agreed to help in the resolution of the problem. The monks would limit the gift to one bottle of ceremonial wine per worker and the worker would agree to share the wine with his family during the several religious holidays throughout the year.

This worked out very well and everyone in Lilliland was happy again.