Lzh Mu Bu Vb Pj 2Theft

Explanation of the Adinnādāna Sutta (Theft)

Background

The Adinnādāna Sutta is found in the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition and is one of the most important sections concerning ethics and discipline in the community of monks and nuns. The term “Adinnādāna” means “taking what has not been given,” in other words theft, the act of taking property that is not one’s own without the owner’s permission.

In the Buddha’s time, the Buddha established monastic legal rules (Vinaya) in order to maintain harmony, purity, and the trust of the community of monks and nuns before the people. The Adinnādāna Sutta deals with one of the basic actions prohibited in the Five Precepts (Pañcasīla), abstaining from theft, and expands it into detailed provisions for renunciants.

Main Content

Adinnādāna is classified as a Pārājika violation, an act requiring expulsion from the Sangha, or as Saṅghādisesa, an act requiring confession before the Sangha, depending on degree and circumstance. The sutta states clearly: a monk or nun commits this offense when intentionally taking an object of value, however small, belonging to another person who does not wish to give it, or taking it through deception, concealment, or force.

The sutta clearly distinguishes among different cases: taking grass or leaves from another’s garden, taking fruit from someone else’s tree, or more subtle actions such as stealing money, clothing, or monastic implements. Each case is considered based on the intention (cetanā) of the offender, the decisive factor in the Buddha Dharma.

This rule also includes subtle legal situations: if someone intends to take but has not yet done so, or takes and then returns it, or takes without being certain that the owner would not permit it. These details show that the Buddha gave great importance to intention (saṅkhāra) rather than to mechanical action alone.

Practical Meaning

From the standpoint of practice, Adinnādāna is not only a prohibition against material theft.