I heard this in a conference call yesterday.

Problem:
The word “ask” is not a noun, except when capitalized, in which case it means something different.

Explanation:
Except for the capitalized form “Ask” — spelled CAPITAL-A-S-K — which refers in Scandinavian mythology to the first man, who was made from an ash tree by the Scandinavian gods, the word “ask” is a verb, not a noun.

The person who said “I thought that the ask of me was …” was referring to a request that someone had made to him. This gives us the solution.

Unfortunately, I increasingly hear Americans misuse “ask” as a substitute for the noun “request”. I believe that this is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to say the one-syllable “ask” than to say the two-syllable “request”.

Solution:
“I thought that the request to me was …”