The Buddha asked Malunkyaputta to imagine a man who had been wounded by a poisoned arrow. The Buddha told him to them imagine that the wounded man’s friends and relatives sent for a surgeon but when the surgeon arrives, the wounded man says: ‘I will not let the surgeon pull out this arrow until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble or a brahmin (priest), or a merchant or a worker…tall, short, or middle height…brown or golden-skinned…whether he lives in such a village or town or city…whether the bow that wounded me was a long bow or a cross bow…’ and so on.