“Bhikkhus, there are these five timely gifts. What five? (1) One gives a gift to a visitor. (2) One gives a gift to one setting out on a journey. (3) One gives a gift to a patient. (4) One gives a gift during a famine. (5) One first presents the newly harvested crops and fruits to the virtuous ones. These are the five timely gifts.”

At the proper time, those wise,

charitable, and generous folk

give a timely gift to the noble ones,

who are stable and upright;

given with a clear mind,

one’s offering is vast.

Those who rejoice in such deeds
or who provide other service
do not miss out on the offering;
they too partake of the merit.

Therefore, with a non-regressing mind,
one should give a gift where it yields great fruit.
Merits are the support of living beings
when they arise in the other world.