While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to two monks who were friends.

These two monks obtained a meditation topic from the Buddha and retired to a forest hermitage. Each morning, one of them brought firewood, prepared a charcoal-dish, and spent the first watch chatting with the probationers and novices.

The other, a heedful monk engaged in meditation, admonished his friend not to act this way, warning that four states of suffering stand ready for a heedless monk like his own house, and that the favour of the Buddhas cannot be won through half-hearted effort. When his friend paid no attention, the zealous monk gave up trying to spur him and returned to his own meditation.

The slothful monk, after warming himself through the first watch, returned to the monastery just as his friend, finishing his walking meditation, entered his cell. He mocked his friend for entering the forest only to sleep, when he ought instead to be practicing the meditation the Buddha had given him, then went to lie down and sleep himself.

His friend, however, walked up and down through the first watch, rested during the second, and rose in the last watch to practice meditation. Living this way with heedfulness, he attained Arahatship, along with the Supernatural Faculties, in no long time, while the other monk spent his time in utter heedlessness.

When the two completed their residence, they returned to the Buddha, who greeted them and asked whether they had lived heedfully and reached the goal of the religious life. The heedless monk answered that his friend could hardly be called heedful, since he had done nothing but lie and sleep, while he himself had brought firewood each morning and sat warming himself rather than sleeping.

The Buddha told the slothful monk that he mistook heedlessness for heedfulness, and that compared to his friend he was like a weak, slow horse, while his friend was like a swift, fleet-footed one.