"Quiet cards?"

"My city government issues cards that say that you have a certain level of self-control and can be trusted not to scream or hit people or otherwise disturb others, and you have to present one to be allowed in to many nice restaurants or theatrical productions."

... "I can see how those would be useful."

"What do you do?"

"Investigate murders and treason, and help run the tests to choose other people to investigate as well."

"Cool! Are you a monk or a layperson? --I guess I shouldn't assume other countries are governed by monks."

"Oh, I'm laity. We've gone to, uh, lengths to get the monks out of the government."

Fortitude looks shocked. "Why?"

"Because they weren't paying taxes and were trying to keep it that way. Also a pretender to the throne claimed to be Maitreya and founded monasteries about it."

"Monks weren't paying taxes?"

"Oh, but you see, they were very generously holding onto the money to help people gain merit. Very nice of them, really."

Fortitude looks extremely confused. "Well, of course the church is going to hold on to the money so that they can give it to the poor and build temples and schools and bridges..."

"And have feasts and gild everything, can't forget that. ...I shouldn't make fun of that, proportionate gilding is fine."

Fortitude looks even more confused, and a little upset. "The monasteries were taking people's taxes and wasting them?"

"They weren't taking people's taxes, they were taking donations and then not paying their own."

... he has no clue if Fortitude is naive, or if their monks are actually that... ideal.

"Those aren't different words in my language. Donations are... special taxes you pay to the monastery?"

"They're voluntary, to gain merit. Is 'merit' coming across right?"

"It's coming across as a word with the synonyms-- excellence, quality, virtue, worthiness, value, benefit..."

"It's-- something you gain by taking good actions. And you can't really measure it, not unless you are Heaven itself, but you do know what you can do to gain it?"

"What are taxes then? They're involuntary?"

"Yes, you have to give them. ...you have an empire with voluntary taxes?"

"Forty to sixty percent of the money the government has comes from voluntary taxes. The remainder comes from land rent and taxes on goods or services that hurt yourself or other people but that we shouldn't ban."

...

"You have some of the most generous citizenry I have ever heard of."

"Well, the monasteries aren't different from the government, so probably that explains the difference."

"But giving to your monasteries doesn't give the donor merit?"