Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A hostile town blocks the local well against the Buddha's mendicants, the blockage clears on Ānanda's third approach, and the Buddha's response to the whole episode is a verse that pointedly changes the subject — from water and wells to a thirst that has already, permanently, been satisfied.
A named place, a real conflict
Unlike most of this chapter, this discourse gives real geographic and social specifics: the Buddha is “wandering in the land of the Mallas,” arrives at “a brahmin town of the Mallas named Thūṇa,” and the townspeople, on hearing of his approach, respond not with hospitality but with a specific, deliberate obstruction — filling the town well “with grass and hay right to the top” so that, in their own words, “these shavelings, these fake ascetics” cannot drink. The text records their hostility in their own voice, without softening it, giving this discourse an edge of real social conflict rare elsewhere in the collection.
Three requests
The Buddha's response is understated to the point of anticlimax: he simply leaves the road, sits at the root of a tree, and asks Ānanda three separate times to fetch water from the very well Ānanda has just explained is deliberately blocked. Ānanda's own hesitation is preserved in the text — he explains the problem plainly after the first request — yet the Buddha repeats the same request twice more without any further explanation of why. Only on the third instruction does Ānanda comply, taking his bowl and going.
Cleared, without explanation
What happens next is described but not explained: “as he approached the well, all the grass and hay erupted out of the well-mouth,” leaving the water “transparent, unclouded, and clear right up to the top, seeming to overflow.” The text does not say how, or attribute the event to any specific cause beyond Ānanda's own exclamation afterward: “the Realized One has such psychic power and might!” This is offered as Ānanda's interpretation, stated twice — once to himself, once to the Buddha — rather than as a narrated fact the text asserts independently.
A verse that changes the subject
Ānanda returns triumphant, urging the Buddha to drink the water he worked to secure — and the Buddha's response, in verse, sidesteps the whole triumph: “what difference would a well make if water is there all the time? Having cut off craving at the root, who would go out on a quest?” The verse does not comment on the psychic feat, the town's hostility, or even confirm whether the Buddha drinks. It simply observes that anyone whose thirst — craving, not literal water — has already been cut off at the root has no quest left to go on, no well left to need. The episode’s drama, on this reading, was never really about the well at all.
Key terms
The text
A well deliberately blocked
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was wandering in the land of the Mallas together with a large Saṅgha of mendicants when he arrived at a brahmin town of the Mallas named Thūṇa. The brahmins and householders of Thūṇa heard: “It seems the ascetic Gotama—a Sakyan, gone forth from a Sakyan family—while wandering in the land of the Mallas has arrived at Thūṇa, together with a large Saṅgha of mendicants.” They filled the well with grass and hay right to the top, thinking, “Don’t let these shavelings, these fake ascetics drink the water.”
Three requests
§2And then the Buddha left the road, went to the root of a tree, and sat down on the seat spread out. When he was seated he said to Venerable Ānanda: “Go on then, Ānanda, fetch me some water from that well.”
§3When he said this, Venerable Ānanda said to the Buddha, “Just now, sir, the brahmins and householders of Thūṇa filled the well with grass and hay right to the top, thinking, ‘Don’t let these shavelings, these fake ascetics drink the water.’”
§4For a second time, and for a third time, the Buddha said to Ānanda: “Go on then, Ānanda, fetch me some water from that well.” “Yes, sir,” replied Ānanda. Taking his bowl he went to the well. As he approached the well, all the grass and hay erupted out of the well-mouth. The water stood transparent, unclouded, and clear right up to the top, seeming to overflow.
A well cleared, and a verse that changes the subject
§5Then Venerable Ānanda thought, “Oh lord, how incredible, how amazing! The Realized One has such psychic power and might! For when I approached this well, all the grass and hay erupted out of the well-mouth. The water stood transparent, unclouded, and clear right up to the top, seeming to overflow.” Gathering a bowl of drinking water he went back to the Buddha, and said to him, “It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing! The Realized One has such psychic power and might! For when I approached that well, all the grass and hay erupted out of the well-mouth. The water stood transparent, unclouded, and clear right up to the top, seeming to overflow. Drink the water, Blessed One! Drink the water, Holy One!”
§6Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
The verse
§7“What difference would a well make
if water is there all the time?
Having cut off craving at the root,
who would go out on a quest?”
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