The introductory story relates how the monks of Kosambī quarrelled and brought about great dissension among themselves because one of their number had left in a vessel the surplus water for rinsing the mouth. When the Buddha found that he could not induce the monks to live in harmony, he related to them the story of Dīghīti, king of Kosala, and when even that failed to produce the desired effect he uttered ten stanzas, standing poised in mid-air, and went away from Kosambī, leaving the monks to their fate.
The Kosambī Jātaka contains only a small portion of the story of Dīghīti, scarcely more than an allusion to it. The Dīghīti Kosala Jātaka (q.v.) contains further details, but even when taken together, these two do not make the story complete. The full story is related in the Vinaya Pitaka (Vin.i.342ff).