Adinnādāyīsutta — Kammapathavagga — the twenty-seventh chapter of the Fours
Setting
None stated; the Kammapathavagga gives no location for this discourse, and it is addressed to the mendicants directly
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
One elided line, the same four-degree structure as AN 4.264, applied to stealing
Length
under a minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this discourse
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the second of ten, best read against its template at AN 4.264
Why this discourse
Stealing, the second of the ten courses of action, given the same treatment AN 4.264 gave killing: doing it, encouraging it, approving of it, and praising it, all four judged the same way.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Stealing oneself, encouraging others to steal, approving of stealing, and praising stealing are four qualities that deliver a person to hell; the four forms of abstention deliver them to heaven.
The template, applied a second time
Adinnādāyī, ‘taking what is not given’, replaces pāṇātipātī in AN 4.264’s exact four-part frame, with nothing else changed: the same four degrees of involvement, the same hell/heaven formula, the same structure down to the wording. The full discussion of why four degrees rather than one, and what distinguishes approval and praise from direct encouragement, stands at AN 4.264 and does not need repeating.
Where this discourse sits in the chapter's sequence
Stealing is the second of the three bodily courses of action, following killing and preceding sexual misconduct. The chapter is working through the ten courses in their traditional order — three bodily, four verbal, three mental — one discourse at a time.
A single elided line
Unlike AN 4.264, which was written out in full, this discourse survives compressed to a single line using the source text’s own …pe… abbreviation, on the reasonable assumption that a listener who has just heard the full pattern applied to killing needs only the new content, stealing, substituted into an already familiar frame.
Key terms
adinnādāna — “taking what is not given”, stealing — the second of the ten courses of action, and this discourse’s subject.
attanā, samādapeti, samanuñño, vaṇṇaṁ bhāsati — the same four degrees of involvement as AN 4.264: doing it oneself, encouraging others, approving, and praising.
yathābhataṁ nikkhitto — “placed as if delivered there” — the formula continued unchanged from AN 4.264.
peyyāla — “repetition-series” — the abridgment device compressing this discourse to a single line.
dasa kammapatha — the ten courses of action, worked through in their traditional order across this chapter.
The text
The discourse exactly as the source abridges it, ellipsis marks included. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The elided discourse
§1“Mendicants, someone with four qualities is placed in hell as if delivered there. What four? They themselves steal … Someone with four qualities is placed in heaven as if delivered there. … They don’t themselves steal … ”
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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 course of action does this discourse address?
Correct: B. The second of the ten courses of action.
Question 2 of 10
What structure does this discourse reuse from AN 4.264?
Correct: B. Nothing changed except the specific act named.
Question 3 of 10
Where does the full discussion of why four degrees are used, rather than just one, appear?
Correct: B. Consistent with this series' practice of not re-explaining shared structures.
Question 4 of 10
What position does stealing occupy among the ten courses of action?
Correct: B. The chapter works through the ten courses in their traditional order.
Question 5 of 10
What form does this discourse take?
Correct: B. Compressed using the source text's own …pe… marks.
Question 6 of 10
What three courses of action make up the "bodily" group stealing belongs to?
Correct: B. The traditional first three of the ten courses of action.
Question 7 of 10
What formula does this discourse use?
Correct: B. Unbroken through this chapter's systematic treatment.
Question 8 of 10
What discourse immediately follows this one?
Correct: B. Continuing through the three bodily courses of action.
Question 9 of 10
What Pāli term names "approving" in this discourse's structure?
Correct: B. The third of the four degrees, a private stance needing no voice.
Question 10 of 10
How is this discourse's heaven half described?
Correct: B. The same four-degree structure, in its negated form.
