Ja 53 The Story about the Liquor Dish
(Puṇṇapātijātaka)
In the present some poor drunks try to fool Anāthapiṇḍika into taking a drugged drink, so they could rob him. When they don’t drink the liquor themselves he understands their trickery and scolds them. When the Buddha hears of this, he tells of a similar happening in a past life, when the same people tried to trick him in a similar way (full story).
1. Tatheva puṇṇā pātiyo, aññāyaṁ vattate kathā,
Ākāraṇena jānāmi na cāyaṁ bhaddikā surā ti.
The dishes are still full, while the talk is about something other, for this reason I know that this spirit cannot have excellence.
In this connection, still means just as was seen by me at the time of leaving, so these dishes of spirits are still full.
While the talk is about something other means you continue to speak praise of your spirits, which is something other, false, untrue. If these spirits were agreeable, you would drink them, you would not leave even half of the dishes. But amongst you not even one has drunk these spirits.
For this reason I know that means therefore through this reason I know.
This spirit cannot have good quality, thinking: “This spirit certainly has no excellence, it must be mixed with poison,” after catching the rogues, just as they did not do such a thing, having frightened them, he ejected them from there.