At one time the Buddha was staying at Āḷavī at the Aggāḷava Shrine. At that time the lay followers were coming to the monastery to listen to the Teaching. When the instruction was over, the senior monks went to their own dwellings, but the newly ordained monks lay down right there in the assembly hall together with the lay followers—absentminded, heedless, naked, muttering, and snoring. The lay followers complained and criticized them, “How can the venerables lie down absentminded, heedless, naked, muttering, and snoring?” The monks heard the complaints of those lay followers, and the monks of few desires complained and criticized those monks, “How can monks lie down in the same sleeping place as people who are not fully ordained?” After rebuking those newly ordained monks in many ways, they told the Buddha. Soon afterwards he had the Sangha gathered and questioned the monks: “Is it true, monks, that monks did this?” “It’s true, sir.” The Buddha rebuked them … “How could those foolish men do this? This will affect people’s confidence …” … “And, monks, this training rule should be recited like this:

Preliminary ruling ‘If a monk lies down in the same sleeping place as a person who is not fully ordained, he commits an offense entailing confession.’”

In this way the Buddha laid down this training rule for the monks.

Second substory