[1546] "Suppose, Mahānāma, there were a bad field, a bad plot of ground, with its stumps not cleared away; and the seeds were broken, rotten, spoiled by wind and sun, without pith, not well stored; and even though the sky should properly pour down a shower of rain — would those seeds attain growth, increase, and abundance?"
"No indeed, venerable sir."
"Even so, Mahānāma, here a Dhamma is badly expounded, badly proclaimed, unemancipating, not conducive to peace, proclaimed by one who is not a Perfectly Enlightened One — this I say is like the bad field. And in that Dhamma a disciple dwells practising in accordance with the Dhamma, practising properly, conducting himself in accordance with the Dhamma — this I say is like the bad seed."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.