Reading guide
Four deities, four distinct angles on giving
Where SN 1.31's deities varied only a single closing line of a shared refrain, this discourse's four deities offer genuinely different arguments: generosity as simple opportunity not taken, generosity as protection against a feared outcome that withholding actually causes, generosity from scarcity outweighing withheld abundance, and generosity as specifically what is hard to do — the real measure of virtue, not merely its ordinary practice.
A fear that creates what it fears
The second deity's verse names a specific irony: the miser who withholds out of fear of future want brings about exactly that want, in this world and the next, through the withholding itself — a structure of self-defeating avoidance echoing SN 1.22's image of harm returning to its source.
A pointed ranking of sacrifice below ethical life
Asked who spoke best, the Buddha's own verse does something none of the four deities attempted: it explicitly ranks ‘a hundred thousand people making a thousand sacrifices’ below a single person living rightly on gleanings, or supporting a partner with little. This directly challenges the assumed value of large-scale ritual sacrifice, a theme this collection meets again elsewhere in the broader canon's critiques of Brahminical sacrifice.
Pressed for a reason, and given one
Rather than let this ranking stand unexplained, a deity asks directly why such an abundant, magnificent sacrifice fails to equal a moral person's gift. The Buddha's answer is specific, not general: such sacrifices are funded ‘after slaying, killing, and tormenting’ — the disqualification is about the violence embedded in how the offering was obtained, not merely about its scale or ritual form.
Key terms
The text
Deities arrive; a first verse on stinginess
§1At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then, late at night, several glorious deities of the host of a hundred felicities, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove, went up to the Buddha, bowed, and stood to one side. Standing to one side, one deity spoke this verse in the Buddha’s presence:
§2“Because of stinginess and negligence a gift is not given. Wanting merit, a smart person would give.”
A second deity: fear that creates what it fears
§3Then another deity recited these verses in the Buddha’s presence: “When a miser fails to give because of fear, the very thing they’re afraid of comes to pass. The hunger and thirst that a miser fears hurt the fool in this world and the next. So you should dispel stinginess, overcoming that stain, and give a gift. The good deeds of sentient beings support them in the next world.”
A third deity: what's given from little
§4Then another deity recited these verses in the Buddha’s presence: “Among the dead they do not die, those who, like fellow travelers on the road, are happy to provide, though they have but little. This is an ancient teaching. Some who have little are happy to provide, while some who have much don’t wish to give. An offering given from little is multiplied a thousand times.”
A fourth deity: what's hard to give
§5Then another deity recited these verses in the Buddha’s presence: “Giving what’s hard to give, doing what’s hard to do; the wicked don’t act like this, for the teaching of the good is hard to follow. That’s why the virtuous and the wicked have different destinations after here. The wicked go to hell, while the virtuous are bound for heaven.”
A question, and the Buddha's ranking
§6Then another deity said to the Buddha, “Sir, who has spoken well?” “You’ve all spoken well in your own way. However, listen to me also: A hundred thousand people making a thousand sacrifices isn’t worth a fraction of that sort, who lives rightly, wandering for gleanings, or one who supports their partner with what little they have.”
A deity presses further
§7Then another deity addressed the Buddha in verse: “Why doesn’t that sacrifice of theirs, so abundant and magnificent, equal the value of a moral person’s gift? How is it that a hundred thousand people making a thousand sacrifices isn’t worth a fraction of what’s offered by that sort?”
§8“Some give based on immorality—after slaying, killing, and tormenting. Such an offering—tearful, violent—in no way equals the value of a moral person’s gift. That’s how it is that a hundred thousand people making a thousand sacrifices isn’t worth a fraction of what’s offered by that sort.”
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