雜譬喻經 1.34

1.34

In a foreign country, petty persons serving an eminent man wished to win his favour. Seeing the eminent man spit on the ground, they competed to come and step on it to rub it away with their feet. There was one person who was not very quick and agile; though he wished to step on it, he could never manage to do so. Later, seeing that the eminent man was about to spit, just as he gathered his mouth, [the servant] stepped on his mouth with his foot. The eminent man asked: "Do you wish to rebel? Why did you step on my mouth?" The petty person answered: "I had good intentions; I did not wish to rebel." The eminent man asked: "If you did not rebel, why did you go to this extreme?" The petty person answered: "Whenever you spit, eminent sir, I always want to step on the spit. But as soon as the spit leaves your mouth, the others always snatch the chance before me, and I can never get it. For that reason, I stepped on it right inside your mouth." This illustrates that during debate, one must wait until the proposition has left the mouth before raising an objection. If the proposition is still in the mouth and the principle has not yet been declared clearly, raising an objection is like stepping on it right inside the mouth.