When he had spoken, Kassapa said to the Buddha, “It’s hard, worthy Gotama, to be a true ascetic or a true brahmin.” “It’s typical, Kassapa, in this world to think that it’s hard to be a true ascetic or brahmin. But someone might practice all those forms of mortification. And if it was only because of just that much, only because of that course of fervent mortification that it was so very hard to be a true ascetic or brahmin, it wouldn’t be appropriate to say that it’s hard to be a true ascetic or brahmin. For it would be quite possible for a householder or a householder’s child—or even the bonded maid who carries the water-jar—to practice all those forms of mortification.