[654] At that time the Buddha, the Blessed One, was dwelling at Sāvatthī, in the Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍika's park. Now at that time a certain caravan wished to travel westward from Rājagaha. A certain **bhikkhu** said to those people: "I too will go along with you, sirs."
"Venerable sir, we shall evade the customs duty (suṅka)."
"That, friends, is for you to know."
The customs officials heard: "It is said that a caravan is going to evade the duty," and they lay in wait on the road. Then those officials, having seized the caravan and stripped it of its goods, said to that bhikkhu: "Why, venerable sir, do you knowingly travel together with a thieving caravan (theyyasattha)?" Having detained him,¹ they released him.
Then that bhikkhu, having gone to Sāvatthī, reported this matter to the bhikkhus. Those bhikkhus who were of few wishes … criticized, denounced, and spread it about: "How can a bhikkhu knowingly, by arrangement, set out on the same road together with a thieving caravan?" …
"Is it true, as they say, bhikkhu, that you knowingly, by arrangement, set out on the same road together with a thieving caravan?"
"It is true, Blessed One."
The Buddha, the Blessed One, rebuked him: "How can you, foolish man, knowingly, by arrangement, set out on the same road together with a thieving caravan? This, foolish man, is neither for the confidence of those without confidence, nor for the increase [of confidence] of those already confident …
"And thus, bhikkhus, you should recite this training rule: Should any bhikkhu knowingly, by arrangement, set out on the same road together with a thieving caravan, even for the distance between one village and the next, there is an offense of pācittiya."
¹ Variant (footnote in the Siam Raṭṭha edition): the Burmese edition reads *palibundhetvā* for *palibuddhitvā*.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.