While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke these verses with reference to a rich man named Garahadinna and the miracle of the lotus flowers.

At Savatthi there once lived two friends, Sirigutta and Garahadinna. Sirigutta was a lay disciple of the Buddha, while Garahadinna followed the naked ascetics known as the Niganthas, who repeatedly urged him to persuade his friend to abandon the monk Gotama and instead support their own teachers.

Garahadinna went to Sirigutta again and again, asking what use it was to visit the monk Gotama and urging him to visit his own noble teachers instead. Sirigutta bore this in silence for some time, but eventually asked his friend what exactly these noble teachers knew.

Garahadinna insisted they knew everything of the past, present, and future, and understood every thought, word, and deed of every being. Impressed, Sirigutta asked him to invite these teachers on his behalf, and Garahadinna happily did so, delighting his teachers, who believed Sirigutta had at last placed his faith in them.

Sirigutta then had a long ditch dug in an empty space on his property and filled with dung and slime, with posts and ropes rigged so that any seat placed over it would tip its occupant backward into the filth the moment they sat down. He had the seats covered so the ditch would not be visible, and had large empty jars smeared on the outside with rice-porridge, boiled rice, ghee, and sugar, arranged behind the house as though full.

The next morning, Garahadinna came to confirm that food had been prepared, and Sirigutta assured him that the jars were full and the seats ready, then sent him on his way.

When the five hundred naked ascetics arrived, Sirigutta greeted them with mock reverence, privately thinking that if they truly knew all things, as they claimed, they would know not to enter his house, since there was no food prepared and the seats were rigged to tip them into filth. He instructed his men to pull the coverings out from under the seats just as the ascetics sat down, so the cloths would not be soiled.

Unaware of the trap, all five hundred ascetics sat down together and were tipped backward into the ditch of filth, disgraced before the household.

Seeking revenge, Garahadinna in turn invited the Buddha, who came with five hundred monks and stood at his door. Garahadinna greeted them with the same mock reverence, privately thinking that if the Buddha truly knew all things as claimed, he would not enter a house with no food prepared, and would instead be flung into a charcoal-pit he had secretly prepared and humiliated.

But contrary to his plan, a miracle occurred: lotus flowers as large as cart wheels sprang up from the pit, splitting it apart. Confused, Garahadinna asked Sirigutta what he should do, since Sirigutta had claimed the jars were full of food.

Sirigutta admitted he had lied and that the jars were actually empty, but told Garahadinna to go look at them anyway. At that very moment, each jar filled with exactly the food Sirigutta had named for it, rice-porridge, boiled rice, and all the rest.

Witnessing this miracle, Garahadinna was overcome with joy and faith, and attended on the Buddha and the assembly of monks with deep reverence. After the meal, he offered his bowl to the Buddha as a sign that he wished to hear words of thanksgiving, and from that day became a devoted disciple of the Buddha.