Dighanikaya 11.497

11.497

Sakuṇanti kākaṃ vā kulalaṃ vā. Na kho eso, bhikkhu, pañho evaṃ pucchitabboti idaṃ bhagavā yasmā padesenesa pañho pucchitabbo, ayañca kho bhikkhu anupādinnakepi gahetvā nippadesato pucchati, tasmā paṭisedheti. Āciṇṇaṃ kiretaṃ buddhānaṃ, pucchāmūḷhassa janassa pucchāya dosaṃ dassetvā pucchaṃ sikkhāpetvā pucchāvissajjanaṃ. Kasmā? Pucchituṃ ajānitvā paripucchanto duviññāpayo hoti. Pañhaṃ sikkhāpento pana ‘‘kattha āpo cā’’tiādimāha.

"A bird": a crow or a hawk. "That question, monk, should not be asked in this way": since this question ought to be asked with specification, but this monk, including even what is unappropriated [matter], asks it without specification, the Blessed One therefore forbids [it]. For this is customary for the Buddhas: to show the fault in the question of a person confused in questioning, to train [them] in the question, and then to answer the question. Why? Asking without knowing how to ask, one is difficult to instruct. Training [him] in the question, however, he spoke [the words] beginning with "Where do water and".