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Verse 226: The Story of Punna the Slave Girl

While residing at the Gijjhakuta mountain, the Buddha uttered Verse (226) of this book,
with reference to a slave girl in Rajagaha.

One night, Punna the slave girl was up pounding rice for her master. As she got tired she
rested for a while. While resting, she saw Thera Dabba leading some Bhikkhus to their
respective monasteries on their return from listening to the Dhamma. The girl seeing them
up so late, pondered, "I have to be up at this late hour because I am so poor and have to
work hard. But, why are these good people up at this late hour? May be a Bhikkhu is sick,
or are they being troubled by a snake?"

Early in the morning the next day, Punna took some broken rice, soaked it in water and
made a pan-cake out of it. Then, intending to eat it at the riverside she took her cheap,
coarse pan-cake along with her. On the way, she saw the Buddha coming on an alms-round.
She wanted to offer her pan-cake to the Buddha, but she was not sure whether the
Buddha would accept to eat such cheap, coarse pan-cake. The Buddha knew her thoughts.
He accepted her pan-cake and asked Thera Ananda to spread the small mat on the ground.
The Buddha sat on the mat and ate the pan-cake offered by the slave girl. After eating,
the Buddha called Punna to him and answered the question which was troubling her.
Said the Buddha to the slave girl, "Punna, you cannot go to sleep because you are poor and
so have to work hard. As for my sons, the Bhikkhus, they do not go to sleep because they
have to be always vigilant and ever mindful."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verse 226: In those who are ever vigilant, who by day and by night train themselves in the three
sikkhas (i.e., sila, samâdhi and pañña), and who have their mind directed towards Nibbana, moral
intoxicants become extinct.

At the end of the discourse Punna attained Sotapatti Fruition.

Translated by Daw Mya Tin, M.A.,
Burma Pitaka Association, Rangoon, Burma 1986.