Soon afterwards there was a celebration in Sāvatthī. People were going to the park all dressed up, as did Visākhā Migāramātā. As she was leaving her village, she thought, “What will I do when I get to the park? Why don’t I pay a visit to the Buddha!” She then removed all her ornaments, bound them in a bundle with her upper robe, and gave it to her slave girl, saying, “Listen, look after this bundle.” Visākhā then went to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down. And the Buddha instructed, inspired, and gladdened her with a teaching, after which she got up from her seat, bowed down, circumambulated him with her right side toward him, and left. And the slave girl left too, forgetting the bundle. The monks saw it and told the Buddha. “Well then, monks, pick it up and put it aside.” Soon afterwards the Buddha gave a teaching and addressed the monks: “Within a monastery, monks, you should pick up precious things or what’s regarded as precious, or have it picked up, and then put it aside with the thought, ‘Whoever owns it will come and get it.’ And so, monks, this training rule should be recited like this:

Second preliminary ruling ‘If a monk picks up something precious or something regarded as precious, or he has it picked up, except within a monastery, he commits an offense entailing confession.’”

In this way the Buddha laid down this training rule for the monks.

Third substory