Reading guide
A request repeated three times
The story here has an almost folk-tale rhythm to it: a wanderer’s young wife, pregnant and near her time, asks him three times, in identical words, to bring oil for her delivery — “Go, brahmin, bring oil for my delivery” — and three times he asks, reasonably enough, where he’s even supposed to get it. There’s no meanness in the exchange; it reads as an ordinary, escalating domestic pressure.
A loophole, badly used
The wanderer knows of one place oil is freely available: King Pasenadi’s storehouse gives “ghee and oil… to any ascetic or brahmin,” but only to drink there, not to carry away. He hits on a plan that solves the letter of the restriction while ignoring what it obviously implies: drink as much oil as he can at the storehouse, then go home and bring it back up so his wife can use it. The plan fails immediately and badly — once home, he can neither vomit the oil up nor pass it, and is left “suffering painful, sharp, severe, acute feelings,” rolling on the ground.
Seen, not spoken to
When the Buddha, walking for alms, sees him in this state, there’s no conversation. The wanderer doesn’t ask for help and the Buddha doesn’t offer any diagnosis or remedy; the text moves straight to the heartfelt saying, “understanding this matter,” as the man writhes in agony.
The second and fourth lines echo Ud 2.5 almost word for word (“see how troubled are those with attachments, a person bound tight to people”), but this verse’s own opening line is sharper — an exclamation, “Oh!,” rather than a flat statement. It’s hard not to read that as fitting: the scene that provokes it is far more visibly, physically painful than a lay follower’s mere delay in visiting.
What “attachment” produced here
It would be easy to read this as simply a story about a foolish decision, and on one level it is — the plan to drink and vomit oil is bad judgement, plainly. But the verse doesn’t diagnose the man’s error as poor planning; it locates the deeper cause in being “bound tight to people” (paṭibandhacitta, “tied in mind to people”) — his wife’s demand, his own devotion to meeting it by any means necessary, driving him to a plan that predictably backfires on his own body. The comedy and the pain of the scene are both real; the verse reads through both to the entanglement underneath.
Key terms
The text
§1.1–1.5So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Now at that time a certain wanderer had a young brahmin wife who was pregnant and about to give birth. She said to him, “Go, brahmin, bring oil for my delivery.”
§2.1–2.8The wanderer said, “But where, my dear, can I get oil?” For a second time, she said, “Go, brahmin, bring oil for my delivery.” For a second time, the wanderer said, “But where, my dear, can I get oil?” For a third time, she said, “Go, brahmin, bring oil for my delivery.”
§3.1Now at that time ghee and oil were being given away to any ascetic or brahmin at the storehouse of King Pasenadi of Kosala. But it was only to drink there, not to take away.
§4.1–4.3Knowing this, the wanderer thought, “Why don’t I go to the king’s storehouse, drink as much oil as I can, then come home and throw it up so it can be used for the delivery?”
§5.1–5.2Then he did just that. But when he got home he was unable to either bring it up or pass it out. He rolled to and fro, suffering painful, sharp, severe, acute feelings.
§6.1–6.2Then the Buddha robed up in the morning and, taking his bowl and robe, entered Sāvatthī for alms. He saw the wanderer in agony.
§7.1Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
§8.1–8.4“Oh! How happy are those with nothing! Hence knowledge masters are people with nothing. See how troubled are those with attachments, a person bound tight to people.”
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