The Bodhisatta was once born in the Udiccabrāmanakula, and became a hermit with five hundred pupils. One day his pupils went, with his leave, to Benares, to the haunts of men, for salt and vinegar. The king welcomed them, and invited them to stay in the royal park for four months. During this time a drinking festival was held in the city, and the people, thinking to give the hermits a rare gift, entertained them to the best they had. The hermits became drunk and behaved with undue hilarity. When they emerged from their stupor and realized what they had done, they left the city and hastened back to their teacher.
The story was related in reference to the occasion on which Sāgata Thera got drunk. J.i.360f.