While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to Khanu-Kondanna.

This monk took a meditation subject from the Buddha and attained Arahatship while living in the forest. Wishing to tell the Buddha of his attainment, he set out from the forest.

Growing tired on the way, he left the road, sat on a flat rock, and entered a state of absorption.

At that time five hundred thieves had plundered a village. They packed their loot into sacks sized to each man's strength, carried them on their heads for a long distance, and, growing weary, decided to rest on top of that same flat rock.

Mistaking the motionless monk for a tree stump, one thief set his sack on the monk's head and another set his beside him. One after another, all five hundred placed their sacks in a circle around him and then lay down to sleep.

At dawn they woke and picked up their sacks. Seeing the monk and taking him for an evil spirit, they began to flee, but he called out to them not to be afraid, for he was a monk.

The thieves fell at his feet and begged his pardon for mistaking him for a stump. Their leader declared that he would become a monk under him, the others said they would too, and with one accord they all asked to be ordained.

The elder ordained them all, just as the novice Samkicca had done. From then on he was known as Khanu-Kondanna, Stump Kondanna.

He went with these monks to the Buddha, who asked whether he had gained pupils, and Kondanna told him what had happened. The Buddha asked the monks whether it was true, and they said that they had never seen such a display of power, and so had become monks.

The Buddha told them that it was better to live a single day exercising the wisdom they had just gained than to live a hundred years committing such foolish deeds.