At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground. The brahmin Bharadvāja the Bitter heard a rumor to the effect that: “A brahmin of the Bharadvāja clan has gone forth from the lay life to homelessness in the presence of the ascetic Gotama!” Angry and displeased he went to the Buddha and stood silently to one side. Then the Buddha, knowing what Bhāradvāja the Bitter was thinking, addressed him in verse:

“Whoever wrongs a man who has done no wrong,
a pure man with a spotless record,
the evil backfires back on the fool,
like fine dust thrown upwind.”

When he said this, the brahmin Bhāradvāja the Bitter said to the Buddha: “Excellent, Master Gotama! …” … And Venerable Bhāradvāja became one of the perfected.