On one occasion he was cutting rice with a score or two of his
fellow-disciples, when some hungry thieves came upon them to take away
their grain by force. The other Sramaneras all fled, but our young
hero stood his ground, and said to the thieves, "If you must have the
grain, take what you please. But, Sirs, it was your former neglect of
charity which brought you to your present state of destitution; and
now, again, you wish to rob others. I am afraid that in the coming
ages you will have still greater poverty and distress;--I am sorry for
you beforehand." With these words he followed his companions into the
monastery, while the thieves left the grain and went away, all the
monks, of whom there were several hundred, doing homage to his conduct
and courage.

When he had finished his noviciate and taken on him the obligations of
the full Buddhist orders, his earnest courage, clear intelligence, and
strict regulation of his demeanour were conspicuous; and soon after,
he undertook his journey to India in search of complete copies of the
Vinaya-pitaka. What follows this is merely an account of his travels
in India and return to China by sea, condensed from his own narrative,
with the addition of some marvellous incidents that happened to him,
on his visit to the Vulture Peak near Rajagriha.

It is said in the end that after his return to China, he went to the
capital (evidently Nanking), and there, along with the Indian Sramana
Buddha-bhadra, executed translations of some of the works which he had
obtained in India; and that before he had done all that he wished to
do in this way, he removed to King-chow (in the present Hoo-pih), and
died in the monastery of Sin, at the age of eighty-eight, to the great
sorrow of all who knew him. It is added that there is another larger
work giving an account of his travels in various countries.