Chapter 24

24.

1. Now at that time a certain Bhikkhu tied his bowl with a string, and suspending it on a staff 1, went after noon out of a certain village gate. The people calling out, 'There goes a thief; his sword is glistening,' fell upon him, and seized him. But on recognising him, they let him go. That Bhikkhu, returning to the Ârâma, told this matter to the Bhikkhus.

'What then, Sir,. did you carry a staff with a string to it?'

'It is even so, Sirs.'

Those Bhikkhus who were moderate murmured (&c., as usual, see I, 1, 2, 3) . . . . told the Blessed One . . . . he addressed the Bhikkhus, and said:

'You are not, O Bhikkhus, to carry a staff with a string to it. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkata.'

2. Now at that time a certain Bhikkhu was sick, and he could not wander about without a staff. They told this matter to the Blessed One.

p. 135

'I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to give to a sick Bhikkhu the permission (license) to use a staff. And thus, O Bhikkhus, should it be given. That sick Bhikkhu, O Bhikkhus, should go up to the Samgha [here follow the words of a Kammavâkâ, precisely as in V, 20, 7]'

3. [Similar paragraphs ending with Kammavâkâs for license to lift the bowl with a string, and with both a staff and a string.]

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