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Kosambiya Jātaka (No.428)

The introductory story relates how the monks of Kosambī quarrelled and brought about great dissension among themselves because one of their number had failed to refill a jar for rinsing in the latrine.¹ When the Buddha found that he could not induce the monks to live in harmony, he related to them the story of Dīghīti, king of Kosala, and when even that failed to produce the desired effect he uttered ten stanzas, standing poised in mid-air, and went away from Kosambī, leaving the monks to their fate.

The Kosambiya Jātaka contains only a small portion of the story of Dīghīti, scarcely more than an allusion to it. The Dīghīti Kosala Jātaka (q.v.) contains further details, but even when taken together, these two do not make the story complete. The full story is related in the Vinaya Piṭaka (Vin.i.342 ff).

¹ The original translation is clearly wrong here, as the water jar is used in the latrine for rinsing after defecation, and it should be refilled ready for the next monk to use the latrine. To deliberately fail to do so, e.g. through haste or laziness, it is an offence of wrong-doing, but if one simply forgets through inattention there is no offence.