ABSTRACT
Until now, considerations of the dispositions of the donor and the recipient have tended to play down the importance of the actual gift object. The story of the monkey who gives an impure gift of larvae-ridden honeycomb to the Buddha, for example, concerned as it is with the simple goodness of the act itself, does not linger on the fact that the gift object is unsuitable. All the traditions also stress that donors should give within their means and that the merit from the gift should not be commensurate only with the quality or quantity of the gift, so as not to shun those of pious dispositions but modest means. When the focus is on the internal dispositions of the donor, the actual substance of the gift may seem relatively insignificant. If a gift is unsuitable or defective in some way, no matter, for as the English phrase puts it, “it’s the thought that counts.”
