Bhikkhus, I say, you cannot repay two persons. Who are the two? It is mother and father. Bhikkhus, if you had borne your father and mother on your shoulders and lived a hundred years and meanwhile rubbed and massaged their bodies and they let loose urine and excreta, yet you have not returned the gratitude shown to you. Even if you offer them all the wealth and make them rulers of the earth, even then you have not returned the gratitude shown to you, because they have done much more. They fed you when you could not walk and showed you the world.

If your mother and father did not have faith and you instilled faith in them, if they did not have virtues instilled virtues in them, if they were miserly, made them benevolent and if they were not wise, made them wise, you have shown gratitude to your mother and father, it is more than enough.