Now a slave-girl coming to the house, and seeing the wife of the lord weeping, asked her, “Why, Lady! do you weep?” And she told her what had happened.
“Well, Lady, what dish was your son most fond of?” said she.
“Such and such a one,” was the reply.
“If you grant me full authority in this house, I will bring your son back!” said she.
The Lady agreed, gave her wherewith to pay all her expenses, and sent her forth with a great retinue, saying, “Go now, and by your power bring back my son.”
So the girl then went to Sāvatthi in a palankeen, and took up her abode in the street in which the monk was wont to beg. And without letting him see the people who had come from the lord’s house, but surrounding herself with servants of her own, she from the very first provided the Elder when he came there with food and drink. Having thus bound him with the lust of taste, she in due course got him to sit down in her house; and when she saw that by giving him to eat she had brought him into her power, she shammed sickness, and lay down in her inner chamber.
Then the monk, when his begging time had come, arrived on his rounds at the door of the house. An attendant took his bowl, and made him sit down in the house. No sooner had he done so, than he asked, “How is the lady devotee?”
“She is sick, reverend Sir, and wishes to see you,” was the reply. And he, bound by the lust of taste, broke his observance and his vow, and went to the place where she was lying. Then she told him why she had come, and alluring him, so bound him by the lust of taste, that she persuaded him to leave the Order. And having brought him into her power, she seated him in her palankeen, and returned to Rājagaha with all her retinue.
And this news became the common talk. And the monks, assembled in the hall of instruction, began to say one to another, “A slave-girl has brought back Young Tissa, the keeper of the law concerning food, having bound him with the lust of taste.”
Then the Master, entering the chapel, sat down on his throne, and said, “On what subject are you seated here talking?”