Accayasutta — Bālavagga — the first chapter of the Threes
Setting
None stated; the discourse continues from AN 3.1, whose setting at Sāvatthī is understood to hold
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
Three things for the fool, the same three inverted for the astute, and the chapter’s standing instruction
Length
~1 minute to read
Northern parallel
The material on acknowledging and accepting a fault is well represented in the Chinese Āgamas and underlies the confession procedure of every Vinaya tradition; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — four sentences, and among the most practically useful in the collection
Why this discourse
The chapter has said that folly shows in deeds and that deeds are what a person is known by. This discourse narrows the criterion to a single situation, and it is the one where character is least concealable: what a person does when something has gone wrong. Three things, and the third is the one that catches most people — not what you do about your own mistake, but what you do when somebody brings theirs to you.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A fool cannot see their own mistake, cannot handle it once seen, and cannot receive someone else’s acknowledgment properly.
Three separate failures
The three are sequential and independent, and separating them is the discourse’s whole contribution. First: recognizing that one has made a mistake at all. Second: having recognized it, dealing with it properly — yathādhammaṁ paṭikaroti, making amends in accordance with the teaching. Third: when someone else confesses a mistake to them, accepting it properly.
A person can pass the first and fail the second: they know perfectly well what they did and do nothing about it. A person can pass the first two and fail the third, and this is the common case — scrupulous about their own faults and impossible to apologize to. The discourse counts all three as marks of the same condition.
The third one
Accepting a confession properly is a skill, and it is almost never taught as one. The failures are recognizable: receiving an apology with a lecture, receiving it with visible reluctance, receiving it while making clear that the matter is not closed, or refusing to receive it at all on the grounds that the offense was too serious for words.
The Vinaya treats this as a formal matter, which is a good indication of how seriously the tradition took it. Confession between monastics is a procedure with two parties, and the receiving party has obligations. A community in which faults are confessed and not accepted is not a community that has solved the problem of faults; it has moved the problem.
AN 2.21 in the Twos gave the same pair as the two fools and the two astute — not recognizing one’s own mistake, and not accepting another’s confession. This discourse adds the middle term, which is the one that turns recognition into something that has actually happened.
Why this is the sharpest test in the chapter
The other discourses of this chapter name conduct in general: bad by body, speech, and mind; unskillful, blameworthy, hurtful. Those are true and hard to use, because almost nobody believes their own conduct falls under them.
This one is usable because it names a specific and dateable event. Everyone has made a mistake recently, and everyone has recently had someone bring a mistake to them. The discourse can be checked against a particular week rather than against a self-image, and that is the difference between a criterion and a compliment.
Key terms
accaya — “mistake, transgression, fault” — literally an overstepping. The word used across the canon for what is confessed.
accayaṁ accayato passati — “recognizes a mistake as a mistake” — the first of the three, and the one the others depend on.
yathādhammaṁ paṭikaroti — “deals with it properly” — makes amends in accordance with the teaching. The middle term this discourse adds to the pair given at AN 2.21.
paṭiggaṇhāti — “accepts” — what the astute person does with someone else’s confession, and what the Vinaya treats as a formal obligation of the receiving party.
desanā — “confession, declaration” — the monastic procedure this discourse underlies, which has two parties and not one.
The text
The discourse in full. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Three things by which a fool is known
§1“A fool is known by three things. What three? They don’t recognize when they’ve made a mistake. When they do recognize it they don’t deal with it properly. And when someone else confesses a mistake to them, they don’t accept it properly. These are the three things by which a fool is known.
And an astute person
§2An astute person is known by three things. What three? They recognize when they’ve made a mistake. When they recognize it they deal with it properly. And when someone else confesses a mistake to them, they accept it properly. These are the three things by which an astute person is known. So you should train …”
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Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
What are the three things by which a fool is known here?
Correct: B. Three sequential and independent failures around a single situation.
Question 2 of 10
Why does the guide say separating the three is the discourse’s whole contribution?
Correct: B. The discourse counts all three as marks of the same condition.
Question 3 of 10
Which of the three does the guide call the common case?
Correct: C. Not what you do about your own mistake, but what you do when somebody brings theirs to you.
Question 4 of 10
What does accepting a confession badly look like?
Correct: A. A skill, and almost never taught as one.
Question 5 of 10
How does the Vinaya treat this?
Correct: B. A good indication of how seriously the tradition took it.
Question 6 of 10
What does the guide say about a community where faults are confessed and not accepted?
Correct: B. Which is why the receiving party's conduct is named as a mark of folly.
Question 7 of 10
What did AN 2.21 in the Twos give?
Correct: B. The middle term is the one that turns recognition into something that has actually happened.
Question 8 of 10
Why does the guide call the other discourses of this chapter hard to use?
Correct: B. True, and hard to check oneself against.
Question 9 of 10
What makes this discourse usable by comparison?
Correct: B. It can be checked against a particular week rather than against a self-image.
Question 10 of 10
What does the guide call that difference?
Correct: A. A criterion is something a claim can fail.
