Rumi looked at him, wondering about his action and why he should throw away all that knowledge, and asked him the reason for his action. The seeming vagrant said, "Because you have been reading all your life, and now you should do something more. You ought to understand what you are, and where you are. Everything before you is made of letters. If you could read them, then you could read life, and it would be greater than any scripture, better than any tradition that you can hear. It would disclose the secret of all being."