5.4 The Story about the Thieves Who Broke Their Bonds
Gaṇṭhikabhedakacoravatthu
Dhp 63
CST4: Gaṇṭhibhedakacoravatthu
Burlingame: The Pickpocket
Two thieves went to listen to the Dhamma; one of them attained a stage of Awakening, the other managed to undo a knot in someone’s clothes and steal some pennies; when this was reported to the Buddha he spoke a verse in explanation.
Keywords: Thieves, Listening to Dhamma
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“The fool who knows his foolishness,”
It seems that these two men, who were boon companions, accompanied a great throng to Jetavana to hear the Dhamma. One of them listened to the Dhamma; the other watched for a chance to steal something. The first, through listening to the Dhamma, obtained the fruition of Stream-entry; the second found a matter of five farthings tied to the skirt of a certain man and stole the money.
The confirmed thief had food cooked as usual in his house, but there was no cooking done in the house of the Stream-enterer. His comrade the thief, and likewise the thief’s wife, ridiculed him, saying: “You are so excessively wise that you cannot obtain money enough to have regular meals cooked in your own house.” The other thought to himself: “This man, just because he is a fool, does not think that he is wise,”
63. Yo bālo maññati bālyaṁ, paṇḍito vāpi tena so,
bālo ca paṇḍitamānī, sa ve bālo ti vuccati.
The fool who knows his foolishness,
is at least wise in that matter,
the fool who’s proud of his wisdom,
is said to be a fool indeed.
At the conclusion of the teaching many people, together with their relatives, attained the fruition of Stream-entry and so on.
