English
I have one, do not let those tax collectors collect taxes, temporarily take it back from the tax collection place. The merchants said: Holy ones, according to your command. We will take it back. Those merchants took back the items that those monks needed to be taxed from the tax collection place and gave them to them. The monks gradually walked and returned to the monastery. The monks said to them: Venerable ones, welcome! Welcome! Did you pass safely? Were you not troubled by those tax collectors, revenue collectors, and boat cutters? They said: Venerable ones, we passed safely, and no one troubled us. Did you not bring items that needed to be taxed? They said: We have items that need to be taxed, but friendly merchants took them back from the tax collection place and gave them to us. The monks said: Can the tax you brought be taken back? They said: Maybe it can, maybe it can't, but we have already taken it back. Those monks felt regret, thinking: Did we not commit a downfall that leads to defeat? So they told the monks about it in detail. The monks reported to the Blessed One, and the Blessed One taught: Monks, those monks have not fallen, but a monk should not have someone take back the tax that was brought. If a monk has someone take back the tax that was brought, he will commit a serious transgression. When the Blessed One, in the Jeta Grove of Shravasti (Śrāvastī), placed King Bimbisara, who appeared in Magadha, eighty thousand gods, and countless Brahmins and householders who appeared in Magadha, in the truth, he went to Shravasti and tamed King Prasenajit, who appeared in Kosala, with the sutra of the example of the youth. Both of them gave the complete renunciation of youth to the monks, and gave the complete renunciation of the nuns' community to the nuns, and the nuns had no taxes or duties.