“While walking, ascetic, you say ‘I’ve stopped.’ And I have stopped, but you tell me I’ve not. I’m asking you this, ascetic: how is it you’ve stopped and I have not?”

“Aṅgulimāla, I have forever stopped—I’ve laid aside violence toward all creatures. But you can’t stop yourself <j>from harming living creatures; that’s why I’ve stopped, but you have not.”

“Oh, at long last a renowned great seer, an ascetic has followed me into this deep wood. Now that I’ve heard your verse on Dhamma, I shall discard a thousand evils.”

With these words, <j>the bandit hurled his sword and weapons down a cliff into an abyss. He venerated the Holy One’s feet, and requested the going forth <j>from the Buddha right away.

Then the Buddha, the compassionate great seer, the Teacher of the world with its gods, said to him, “Come, monk!” And with that he became a monk.