Yeah well, I imagine in the monasteries everybody wanted to sit in the cloisters and read and write, but had to spend a lot of time washing the flagstones and hoeing in the fields, and you'd get in trouble just for talking.
In fact, if I'm not mistaken, there's something in the Rule of Benedict that if you didn't do physical labor you didn't get any meat or wine.
We have a similar concept, "Since you've just been sitting around, you obviously can't be hungry!"