For a second time … and a third time, they urged the Buddha to turn back.

But when they said this, the Buddha went on in silence. The bandit Aṅgulimāla saw the Buddha coming off in the distance, and thought, “Oh lord, how incredible, how amazing! People travel along this road only after banding closely together in groups of ten, twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty. Still they meet their end by my hand. But still this ascetic comes along alone and unaccompanied, like a conqueror. Why don’t I take his life?”