The Wholesome Deeds of the Brahmin : หน้า 173/263

Once there was a brahmin who noticed that as the monks stopped at a certain place to robe themselves before entering the town for alms, the hems of their robes would always become wet from the dew on the grass. Therefore the wholesome intention arose in his mind to do a good deed he had never done before — that is, to cut the grass at the point where the monks habitually robed themselves. Thinking thus, he cut the grass. Some time later, the same brahmin observed the monks robing themselves at the same spot at midday and noticed that the hems of the monks’ robes was getting soiled by dust on the ground. Therefore he had the wholesome intention to cover up the dust with clean sand and thinking thus he obtained sand and covered over the dust at that spot. Later still, not contented with the good deeds he had already done, he noticed that standing in the sun to robe oneself caused the monks to sweat profusely — or when it was raining, caused the whole robe to become soaked. Therefore he built a small pavillion to protect the monks from the sun and the rain where they could robe themselves. Once the pavillion was completed, he invited the Buddha and the monastic community to take a meal in the pavillion. When the Buddha heard about the brahmin’s wholesome efforts, he gave the teaching: “Just as a goldsmith must smelt gold not one time, but many times before it can be used to make jewellery, in order to remove all the impurities from the metal, the wise who wisht to remove the defilements from their mind (such as greed etc.), must remove those impurities little by little, sequentially until none remain, while at the same time cultivating wholesome deeds constantly.”