Confusion

Java master Suku entered the chambers of the Spider Clan’s new head abbot, who had been appointed to the position after his predecessor mysteriously went missing.

Suku said to the abbot: “Last month I was ordered to completely re-implement the data visualization module. I requested seven developers with various specialities so that the overhaul could be accomplished in one iteration. Today I emerged from my quarters to find twenty-one strange little monks waiting for me in the hall.”

With great enthusiasm, the abbot replied: “Are they not marvelous? We found them in a distant province which was recently beset by famine or earthquakes or giant red beetles; I forget the specifics. They eat sparingly, sleep only two hours a night, and they are willing to forgo cubicles and code while dangling from the rafters, so they will incur very little overhead. With such a team you should be able to make up the lost time, and complete the seven weeks’ work in a mere seven days.”

Suku sighed, put two fingers to her mouth, and blew a shrill whistle. At the sound a dozen tiny robed figures jumped from the rafters onto the stunned abbot, knocking him unconscious.

The abbot awoke in a dark stone pit with a single candle burning by his side. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom he discovered a rat-scoured skeleton in abbot’s robes, on which was pinned a note:

Above you lies a square trap door:
sturdy, yet light and unlocked.
To aid your exit I have attached the best hinges—
Seven along each edge.