It was about honesty. Truth versus falsity. They wanted God to recognise they no longer practised the mendacity most others idolised.
They began their task: to document each time they’d lied (even the little white kind) inscribing them upon a piece of rice. A grain for every example of their guile.
When the rice ran out, they improvised.
Found a beach. But it takes a steady hand to write upon a grain of sand.