Formerly, Sakyamuni Buddha had a disciple whose name was Subhadra. He was very poor and was all alone, without anybody to support him. His heart was full of sadness and he wanted to follow the Buddha as his disciple. One day, he went to the World Honored One's place but it happened that He was not there.

After looking into Subhadra's former transmigrations for the purpose of finding out whether there existed some co-operating cause, the Buddha's great disciples found that in the past 80,000 aeons, he had not planted any good roots. They then decided not to allow him to stay and sent him away. With a heart full of sadness, Subhadra left the place and when he reached a walled town, he thought that if his karma was so bad, it would be better for him to kill himself by knocking his head against the wall. As he was about to commit suicide, the World Honored One happened to arrive there and asked him about his intention. Subhadra related his story to the World Honored One who accepted him as His disciple. They returned together to His place where seven days later, Subhadra attained Arhatship. The great disciples who did not know the cause of Subhadra's attainment, asked the World Honored One about it.

The World Honored One said to them: "You only know things which happened in the last 80,000 aeon, but before then Subhadra had already planted good roots. At that time, he was also very poor and gathered firewood as his means of subsistence. One day, he met a tiger on the mountains, and seeing that his escape was cut off; he hurriedly climbed a tree. The tiger saw that he was up the tree which it began to gnaw to fall it. At the critical moment, as no one came to his rescue, he had a sudden thought of the great enlightened Buddha who possessed the power of compassion and could save all sufferers. Thereupon, he called:

"Namo Buddhaya! Come quickly to save me!" Upon hearing the call, the tiger went away and did not harm his life. He thus sowed the direct cause of Buddhahood which became ripe today, hence his attainment of the Arhat--stage." After hearing the story, all the great disciples were delighted and praised the marvellous (achievement of the poor man).