When the two met, (or in some versions, some time later) Mahākāśyapa exchanged his fine and expensive robe with that of the Buddha, a robe made of rags. The exchange came to be seen as a gesture of great respect the Buddha had made. It was unprecedented, and a sign that Mahākāśyapa would preside over the First Council after the Buddha's demise. Texts from different traditions suggest that only a person with the great merit as Mahākāśyapa would be able to wear the robe. The only reason the robe was highly valuable was that it had been worn by the Buddha. In itself is was not valuable, because it came from the lowest source, that is, a female slave's corpse discarded in a charnel ground. This also echoed an earlier exchange that took place after the Buddha's Great Renunciation, when he swapped his lay robes with a hunter in the forest. Finally, the fact that it was a rag-robe contributed to the ascetic identity of the figure of Mahākaśyapa.