A lay disciple (upāsaka) of Sāvatthi who was a Stream-winner (sotāpanna). One day he took the uposatha vows and, having listened throughout the night to the teaching, was washing his face in the pool near Jetavana early the next morning, when thieves who had broken into a house and were being pursued put their stolen goods near him and ran away. He, being taken for a thief, was beaten to death. When this was reported to the Buddha, he related a story of the past in which Mahākāḷa had been a forest guard of the king of Bārāṇasī. One day he saw a man entering the forest road with his beautiful wife and, falling in love with the wife, invited them to his house. He then had a gem placed in the man’s cart, and the latter was beaten to death as a thief. DhA.iii.149 ff.