Lzh Dg Bu Pm 2 Sk 61Not Hide Valuables in Stupa

Sutta on Not Hiding Property in a Stupa

Background

This text belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Pāli Canon, the normative collection governing the community of monks and nuns. The Vinaya Piṭaka is divided into three parts: the Sutta-vibhaṅga, the analysis of the rules; the Khandhaka, the collected chapters; and the Parivāra, the appendix. The text “Not Hiding Property in a Stupa” lies in the disciplinary section related to the handling of property belonging to the Sangha and to religious structures.

The deeper background of this text is the early period of Buddhism, when the Sangha was developing strongly with monasteries, stupas, and religious buildings being constructed everywhere. The management of shared property, especially precious objects and money, became an important legal matter needing clear regulation in order to protect the common interests of the Sangha and maintain the faith of the religious community.

Main Content

This text establishes an important ethical principle: members of the Sangha are not permitted to hide or accumulate precious property, such as gems, currency, or valuable objects, in religious structures such as stupas. This includes not burying, concealing, or secretly placing precious objects inside a religious site, for any reason.

The text emphasizes that hiding property in a stupa is a violation of the principle of “saṅgha-kamma,” the communal work of the Sangha. A stupa is a place for worshipping the Buddha or preserving sacred Buddhist objects, and is the common property of the whole Sangha, not of an individual. Any private act of hiding property there is regarded as an abuse of common trust and an infringement upon communal ownership.

The consequence of this conduct is that it gives rise to suspicion and loss of trust among members of the Sangha, damaging the reputation of Buddhism in the eyes of the lay community.