After rebuking those monks in many ways, Venerable Ānanda told the Buddha. Soon afterwards the Buddha had the Sangha gathered and questioned the monks: “Is it true, monks, that there are monks who do this?” “It’s true, sir.” The Buddha rebuked them … “How can those foolish men do this? This will affect people’s confidence …” … “And, monks, this training rule should be recited like this:

Preliminary ruling ‘When his robe is finished and the robe season has ended, if a monk stays apart from his three robes even for a single day, he commits an offense entailing relinquishment and confession.’”

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

Second substory