Reading guide
Direct observation, not private reflection
This discourse breaks the pattern of SN 3.4 through SN 3.6: rather than a philosophical reflection worked out in solitude, Pasenadi reports something he has actually witnessed while performing one of his core royal duties, presiding over legal judgment.
A king resolving to change how he judges his own favorites
The king's conclusion is personal and practical, not abstract: ‘enough with passing judgment today’, he decides, resolving that from now on his own dearest will be known by the quality of the judgments they make, not by rank or closeness to him — a resolution about how he himself will evaluate people going forward.
A fuller confirmation than this trilogy's earlier discourses
Where SN 3.4 through SN 3.6 confirm the king briefly before moving to an elided repeat, the Buddha's reply here restates the substance of the observation directly — naming lying for sensual pleasure a cause of ‘lasting harm and suffering’ — without the elision pattern used in the three discourses immediately preceding it.
Fish swiftly snared, echoing SN 3.6's deer
The closing verse repeats SN 3.6's opening two lines and closing couplet nearly exactly, changing only the central image: fish ‘swiftly snared’ in place of deer caught in a trap, confirming the reading guide's earlier observation that this pairing of refrain and animal image functioned as a reusable unit.
Wealth and status as no guarantee of honesty
The specific detail that it is the wealthy — those with ‘lots of gold and silver’ — who lie for sensual pleasure in the king's account complicates any assumption that material security alone produces honest conduct, consistent with this saṃyutta's recurring skepticism toward wealth as a moral safeguard.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, King Pasenadi said to the Buddha, “Sir, when I’m sitting in court I see well-to-do aristocrats, brahmins, and householders—rich, affluent, and wealthy, with lots of gold and silver, lots of property and assets, and lots of money and grain. But they tell deliberate lies for the sake of sensual pleasures. Then it occurred to me: ‘Enough with passing judgment today. Now my dearest will be known by the judgments he makes.’”
§2“That’s so true, great king! That’s so true! Those who are well-to-do aristocrats, brahmins, and householders tell deliberate lies for the sake of sensual pleasures. That is for their lasting harm and suffering.” That is what the Buddha said. …
§3“Full of desire for possessions and pleasures, greedy, infatuated by sensual pleasures; they don’t notice that they’ve gone too far, like fish swiftly snared. It’ll be bitter later on; for the result will be bad for them.”
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