[477] "What do you think, great king? Suppose a brahmin here … a merchant (vessa) here … a worker (sudda) here were to break into a house, or carry off plunder, or commit burglary of an isolated house, or lie in wait on the highway, or go to another man's wife; and suppose your men, having seized him, were to present him, saying: 'Sire, this is your bandit, a criminal. Decree for him whatever punishment you wish' — what would you do to him?"
"Worthy Kaccāna, we would have him executed, or have him split open, or have him banished, or deal with him as the case warrants. Why is that? Because, worthy Kaccāna, his former designation 'worker' has vanished; he is reckoned simply as 'a bandit.'"
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.