Buddhist Dhammapadha Fools cannot realise the Dhamma Udayi

Chapter V - BALA VAGGA - Fools

Concentrate on your body

A FOOL CANNOT APPRECIATE THE VALUE OF THE DHAMMA

Yavajivam'pi ce balo panditam payirupasati
Na so dhammam vijanati dabbi suparasam yatha.

A fool, even though he is associated with a wise man all his life, does not understand the Dhamma, just as a spoon does not know the taste of soup.

V: 05 Fools cannot realise the Dhamma (Udayi)

Venerable Udayi would often go and sit on the platform from which learned monks delivered their discourses. On one occasion, some visiting bhikkhus, taking him for a very learned monk, put to him some questions on the five aggregates (khandhas). Udayi could not answer, because he did not know anything of the Dhamma. The visiting bhikkhus were astonished to find that one staying in the same monastery with the Buddha could know so very little about the mind and elements and six senses.

To them, the Buddha explained that a fool, even though he is associated with a wise man all his life, does not understand the Dhamma, just as a spoon does not know the taste of soup.