Dighanikaya 24.15

24.15

Pāthikaputtoti pāthikassa putto. Ñāṇavādenāti ñāṇavādena saddhiṃ. Upaḍḍhapathanti yojanaṃ ce, no antare bhaveyya, gotamo aḍḍhayojanaṃ, ahaṃ aḍḍhayojanaṃ. Esa nayo aḍḍhayojanādīsu. Ekapadavārampi atikkamma gacchato jayo bhavissati, anāgacchato parājayoti. Te tatthāti te mayaṃ tattha samāgataṭṭhāne. Taddiguṇaṃ taddiguṇāhanti tato tato diguṇaṃ diguṇaṃ ahaṃ karissāmi, bhagavatā saddhiṃ pāṭihāriyaṃ kātuṃ asamatthabhāvaṃ jānantopi ‘‘uttamapurisena saddhiṃ paṭṭhapetvā asakkuṇantassāpi pāsaṃso hotī’’ti ñatvā evamāha. Nagaravāsinopi taṃ sutvā ‘‘asamattho nāma evaṃ na gajjati, addhā ayampi arahā bhavissatī’’ti tassa mahantaṃ sakkāramakaṃsu.

"Pāthikaputta": the son of Pāthika. "With a claim to knowledge": together with a claim to knowledge. "Half the distance": if there should be a league between us, Gotama half a league, I half a league. This is the method for half a league and so on. Victory will belong to the one who advances beyond even the step of a single foot; defeat to the one who does not come. "We there": we there in that place of assembly. "Double, double that will I": from that point I will do double and double; although knowing his own inability to perform a miracle together with the Blessed One, he spoke thus having understood: "Even for one who fails after contending with a superior person, there is praise." Even the city dwellers, having heard it, made great hospitality for him, thinking: "An incapable person surely does not roar like this; indeed this one too must be an arahant."