T
he Buddha with his disciples then went down to the bank of the river Kakuttha, where he
bathed and refreshed himself, and then into a mango grove a short distance from the river. There the Buddha, feeling very fatigued, asked the monk Cunda to double his outer cloth into four folds, which he then lay down upon, on his right side. At that moment Ananda arrived and the Buddha, perceiving that the goldsmith’s son was troubled of mind because the food he had served had made the Buddha ill, told Ananda to go to Cunda and explain to him that there are two offerings of food to a Buddha that are of equal and the greatest merit: the offering of food before the Enlightenment and the offering of the Buddha’s very last meal. Cunda’s deed was, the Buddha explained, one that would bring him uncommon rewards.
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