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This following medieval manuscript is kept in the British Library. The language indicates that it was written about a thousand years ago. The text is written in Old Irish and was translated by Dennis King.

“The Irish text finally surfaced in print in 1926, in volume two of the Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the British Museum, compiled by Robin Flower.

Very few texts in Old Irish survive in their original written form. In almost all cases, the material was copied and recopied from older manuscript compilations into newer ones, as the old books wore out.

 The language of this little anecdote is arguably more than a thousand years old, but the anecdote survives only in a paper manuscript in the British Library known as Egerton 190, copied in 1709 by Richard Tipper of Mitchelstown, Co. Dublin,” Dennis King said.

 This is the text of the manuscript, translated into English:

“Three monks turned their back on the world. They go into the wilderness to repent their sins before God.

They did not speak to one another for the space of a year. Then one of the men said to another at the end of the year, “We are well,” said he.

Thus it was for another year. “It is well indeed,” said the second man.

They were there after that for another year. “I swear by my habit,” said the third man, “if you do not allow me some quiet I will abandon the wilderness entirely to you!”

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Repost from the original article:  Is This The Worlds Oldest Joke?