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Upassaya Sutta

Ānanda, with great difficulty, persuades Mahā-Kassapa to accompany him to the community of nuns. Mahā-Kassapa goes and teaches them, but Thulla-Tissā, not being pleased with the discourse, upbraids Mahā-Kassapa for what she calls his impertinence in teaching when Ānanda is present. “How does the needle-pedlar deem he could sell a needle to the needle-maker?” Kassapa hears this, and asks Ānanda which of them is the needle-maker, and which is the needle-pedlar.

Ānanda asks for forgiveness in the nun’s name, for women, he says, are foolish, and one must be indulgent to them. Kassapa reminds the audience that it was he himself and not Ānanda who was declared by the Buddha to be the Buddha’s equal in the attainment of the absorptions (jhāna). S.ii.214.