The king said: ‘What is the distinction, Nāgasena, between him who is full of passion, and him who is void of passion?’

‘The one is overpowered by craving, O king, and the other not.’

‘But what does that mean?’

‘The one is in want, O king, and the other not.’

‘I look at it, Sir, in this way. He who has passion and he who has not—both of them alike—desire what is good to eat, either hard or soft. And neither of them desires what is wrong.’

‘The lustful man, O king, in eating his food enjoys both the taste and the lust that arises from taste, but the man free from lusts experiences the taste only, and not the lust arising therefrom.’

‘Well answered, Nāgasena!’