On the first occasion (related at SN 16:10) Ānanda asked Kassapa to accompany him to the nuns’ quarters. Kassapa, however, refused and asked Ānanda to go alone. But Ānanda seemed to be intent on getting Kassapa to give a Dhamma talk to the nuns, and he repeated his request twice. Kassapa finally consented and went along. The result, however, turned out to be quite different from what Ānanda had expected. After the discourse one of the nuns, Thullatissā by name, raised her voice to make a rather offensive remark: “How could Master Kassapa presume to speak on the Dhamma in the presence of Master Ānanda, the learned sage? This is as if a needle peddler wanted to sell a needle to the needle maker.” Obviously this nun preferred the gentle preaching of Ānanda to Kassapa’s stern and sometimes critical approach, which may have touched on her own weaknesses.
When Kassapa heard the nun’s remarks, he asked Ānanda: “How is it, friend Ānanda, am I the needle peddler and you the needle maker, or am I the needle maker and you the needle peddler?”
Ānanda replied: “Be indulgent, venerable sir. She is a foolish woman.”
“Beware, friend Ānanda, or else the Sangha may further investigate you. How is it, friend Ānanda, was it you whom the Exalted One extolled in the presence of the Sangha, saying: ‘I, O monks, can attain at will the four fine-material and immaterial meditative absorptions, the cessation of perception and feeling, the six supernormal knowledges; and Ānanda, too, can so attain’?”
“No, venerable sir.”
“Or did he say: ‘Kassapa, too, can so attain’?”
From the above account we see that the Venerable Mahākassapa did not think that Ānanda’s conciliatory reply was adequate or did full justice to the situation.