BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 1"'I'm the son of a good family, venerable sir. How can I go about wearing onecloth? Wait till I go home. After going home, I will send you one of these cloths or amore beautiful one.'"A second time... A third time, Ven. Upananda said to him, 'If you want to give mesomething, friend, then give me one of those cloths.'"'I'm the son of a good family, venerable sir. How can I go about wearing onecloth? Wait till I go home. After going home, I will send you one of these cloths or amore beautiful one.'"'What's with this offer without wanting to give, friend, in that having made the offeryou don't give?'"So the financier's son, being pressured by Ven. Upananda, left having given himone cloth. People seeing him said to him, 'Why, master, are you going aroundwearing only one cloth?'"He told them what had happened. So the people criticized and complained andspread it about, 'They're arrogant, these Sakyan-son monks, and malcontent. It'sno simple matter to make a reasonable offer to them. How can they, after beingmade a reasonable offer by the financier's son, take his cloth?'"The factors for an offense here are three.1) Object: a piece of any of the six suitable kinds of robe-cloth, measuring atleast four by eight fingerbreadths.2) Effort: One asks, except at the proper time, for such cloth from a lay personwho is not related back through one's great x 7 grandfathers. Perception isnot a mitigating factor here. Even if one perceives the lay person to be relatedwhen in fact he/she isn't, that fulfills the factor here.3) Result: One receives the cloth.The proper occasions. Snatched away, according to the Vibhaṅga, refers to a robesnatched by anyone at all, even a king. This would cover cases not only where therobe has been stolen but also where it has been confiscated by a governmentofficial. Destroyed means burnt, carried away by water, eaten by such things as ratsor termites, or worn out by use — although the Sub-commentary adds here thatworn out by use means worn to the point where the robe can no longer offer propercovering for the body.If all of a bhikkhu's robes are snatched away or destroyed, the Vibhaṅga says thathe is not to "come" naked, which apparently means that he should not approachother people while naked. To do so incurs a dukkaṭa (as opposed to the thullaccayaMv.VIII.28.1 imposes on a bhikkhu who chooses to go about naked when he hasrobes to wear). If a bhikkhu with no cloth to cover his body happens on an164