Once, the Bodhisatta, after studying at Takkasilā, became an ascetic in the Himālaya, visited Uttarapańcāla, and resided in the garden of the Pańcāla king. The king saw him begging for alms, invited him into the palace and, having shown him great honour, asked him to stay in the park. When the time came for the Bodhisatta to return to the Himālaya, he wished for a pair of single soled shoes and a leaf parasol. But for twelve years he could not summon up enough courage to ask the king for these things! He could only get as far as telling the king he had a favour to ask, and then his heart failed him, for, he said to himself, it made a man weep to have to ask and it made a man weep to have to refuse. In the end the king noticed his discomfiture and offered him all his possessions; but the ascetic would take only the shoes and the parasol, and, with these, he left for the Himālaya.
The king is identified with Ananda. J.iii.78ff.