old-path-white-clouds-thich-nhat-hanh

Robe offering became a very popular practice among the laypeople. One day the Buddha spotted a bhikkhu returning to the monastery
with a pile of robes heaped on his shoulder. The Buddha asked him, “How many robes do you have there?”
The Buddha washed the robe that Jivaka had given him.
The bhikkhu answered, “Lord, I have eight.”
“Do you think you need that many?”
“No, Lord, I do not. I only accepted them because the people offered them to me.”
“How many robes do you think a bhikkhu actually needs?”
“Lord, according to my way of thinking, three robes are adequate. Three are plenty to keep warm on cold nights.”
“I share your thoughts. I find three robes sufficient on cold nights. From now on let us announce that each bhikkhu will own only one
begging bowl and no more than three robes. If more than that are offered, the bhikkhu will decline them.”
The bhikkhu bowed to the Buddha and then walked back to his own hut.
One day while standing on a high hill, the Buddha looked out over the fields of rice paddies. He turned to Ananda and said, “Ananda,
how beautiful are the golden patches of rice that stretch to the horizon! Wouldn’t it be nice to sew our robes in the same checkered
pattern?”
Ananda said, “Lord, it is a wonderful idea. Sewing bhikkhus’ robes in the same pattern as rice fields would be lovely. You have said that
a bhikkhu who practices the Way is like a fertile field in which seeds of virtue and merit have been sown to benefit both the present and