‘Venerable Nāgasena, there are to be seen in the world Buddhas, and Pacceka-Buddhas, and disciples of the Tathāgatas, and sovran overlords, and kings over one country, and gods and men;—we find rich and poor, happy and miserable;—we find men who have become women, and women who have become men—there are good deeds and evil, and beings experiencing the result of their virtue or their vice;—we find creatures born from eggs, and in the water, and in sediment, or springing into life by the mere apparitional birth; creatures without feet, bipeds and quadrupeds, and creatures with many feet;—we find Yakkhas and Rakkhasas, and Kumbhaṇḍas, and Asuras, and Dānavas, and Gandhabbas, and Petas and Pisācas, and Kinnaras, and Mahoragas, and Nāgas and Supaṇṇas, and magicians and sorcerers;—there are elephants, and horses, and cattle, and buffaloes, and camels, and asses, and goats, and sheep, and deer, and swine, and lions, and tigers, and leopards, and bears, and wolves, and hyenas, and dogs, and jackals, and many kinds of birds;—there is gold and silver, and the pearl, and The diamond, and the chauk, and rock, and coral, and the ruby, and the Masāra stone, and the cat’s-eye, and crystal, and quartz, and iron ore, and copper, and brass, and bronze;—there is flax, and silk, and cotton, and hemp, and wool;—there is rice, and paddy, and barley, and millet, and kudrūsa grain, and beans, and wheat, and oilseed, and vetches;—there are perfumes prepared from roots, and sap, and pith, and bark, and leaves, and flowers, and fruit, and of all other sorts;—we find grass, and creepers, and shrubs, and trees, and medicinal herbs, and forests, and rivers, and mountains, and seas, and fish, and tortoises—all is in the world. Tell me, Sir, what there is, then, which is not in the world.’

‘There are three things, O king, which you cannot find in the world. And what are the three? That which, whether conscious or unconscious, is not subject to decay and death—that you will not find. That quality of anything, (organic or inorganic), which is not impermanent—that you will not find. And in the highest sense there is no such thing as being possessed of being.’

‘Very good, Nāgasena! That is so, and I accept it as you say.’

Here ends the puzzle as to what is not in the world.