There was an ancient religious order who only practiced their rites in natural surroundings, never in buildings. Their favorite site was a clearing deep in a dark forest where they could celebrate their mass undisturbed.

A young member of the order wanted badly to become a priest and was given the opportunity to try out’, so to speak by demonstrating his knowledge of their mass by officiating. Not wanting to take a chance of forgetting the words, he copied all the words onto a scroll, dug a pit beneath one of the trees in the clearing where the demonstration was to take place and secretly buried the scroll there well in advance of the appointed time.

He was, of course, nervous when the time came and part way through the rite, he could not remember the words. Unfortunately, he had also forgotten under which tree he had buried the scroll and he was not able to find it and complete the rite.

He flunked the test because he couldn’t tell his mass from a scroll in the ground!