When his foster mother, Mahāpajāpati Gotamī, offers a robe to the Buddha, he encourages her to offer it to the Saṅgha instead. He then classifies offerings directed to individuals, contrasts them with those directed to the Saṅgha, and explains four kinds of offering purification.

The Buddha advises Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī on how to discern the teachings to be abandoned and the teachings to be embraced by observing for eight qualities.