111. At one time, the Lord, having stayed as long as he liked at Bārānasi, set off for Uruvelā. Then turning off the road, he entered a woodland grove and sat down at the foot of a tree. Now at that time a group of about thirty high-born friends and their wives were enjoying themselves in that same woodland. One of the friends had no wife, so a prostitute had been brought along for him, and while they were enjoying themselves, she took their belongings and ran away. So these friends began looking around for the woman and as they roamed about, they saw the Lord at the foot of the tree. They approached him and asked: “Lord, have you seen a woman?”
“What, young men, have you to do with a woman?”
So they told the Lord what had happened and why they were looking for the woman. And the Lord said to them: “What do you think? Which is better? To seek for this woman or to seek for yourself?”
“It would be better to seek for ourselves.”
“Well then, sit down and I will teach you Dhamma.” So those friends sat down and the Lord gave a progressive talk, that is, on virtue, on heaven, on the danger, the futility and the disadvantages of sense pleasures and the advantages of giving them up. Then, when the Lord knew that their minds were ready, malleable, free from hindrance, uplifted and gladdened, he explained to them the teaching which is unique to the Buddhas; suffering, its cause, its overcoming and the way to its overcoming.
Vin.I,23 (Mahākhandhaka)
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