Thus have I heard: Once upon a time the Exalted One was in residence at Jetavana, near Sāvatthi. Now at that time there entered Sāvatthi for alms a company of heretics, both monks and Brahmans, wandering ascetics, holding heretical views, patient of heresy, delighting in heresy, relying upon the reliance of heretical views. There were some monks and Brahmans who held this doctrine, who held this view: “The world is eternal. This view alone is truth; any other is folly.” But there were other monks and Brahmans who held this view: “The world is not eternal. This view alone is truth; any other is folly.” Some held that the world is finite, others that the world is infinite. Some held that the soul and the body are identical, others that the soul and the body are distinct. They quarreled and brawled and wrangled and struck one another with the daggers of their tongues, saying: “This is right, that is not right;” “This is not right, that is right.” Now in the morning a company of monks put on their under-garments, took bowl and robe, and entered Sāvatthi for alms. And when they had made their alms-pilgrimage in Sāvatthi, they returned from their pilgrimage. And when they had eaten their breakfast, they approached the Exalted One. And having approached, they saluted the Exalted One and sat down on one side. And sitting on one side, those monks reported the matter to the Exalted One. “The heretics, O monks, the wandering ascetics, are blind, without eyes; know not good, know not evil; know not right, know not wrong. Knowing not good, knowing not evil, knowing not right, knowing not wrong, they quarrel and brawl and wrangle and strike one another with the daggers of their tongues, saying: ‘This is right, that is not right;’ ‘This is not right, that is right.’” In olden times, in this very city of Sāvatthi, there was a certain king. And that king ordered a certain man: “Come, my man, assemble in one place all the men in Sāvatthi who are blind from birth.” “Yes, your majesty,” said that man to that king. And when, in obedience to the king’s command, he had laid hands on all the men in Sāvatthi who were blind from birth, he approached that king. And having approached, he said this to that king: “Your majesty, the blind from birth in Sāvatthi are assembled for you.” “Very well! Now let the blind men feel of the elephant.” “Yes, your majesty,” said that man to that king. And in obedience to the king’s command he let the blind men feel of the elephant, saying: “This, O blind men, is what an elephant is like.”