Delayed speech as right speech I was once told a story by the abbott of a monastery about how the Buddha once decided to delay his speech and said it only when it was the right time.  Paraphrasing, the story is like this - 


  Two tribes were going to war over the waters of a river and the Buddha
  wanted them to stop, but he knew that they were not in the right frame
  of mind to listen to him.  So he kept quiet.  After 3 days of
  fighting, when both sides were in pain from the fighting, the Buddha
  decided to give them advice at that moment, when they were primed to
  listen and they stopped the war immediately.  Although he allowed many
  people to die in waiting for the right moment, he saved a great many
  more lives.  If he had spoken right away and they'd rejected his advice, they
  might also not have listened to him afterwards either.


The abbott then advised me to remember this story as a model.  And I did.  I liked it a lot too.  This was many years ago.  The problem is, I recently decided to look up the story and found this story in the Mahāvaṃsa, of imminent war between the Sakyans and the Koliyans over the waters of the Rohini river.  A key difference here is that the Buddha did not wait until the fighting had started.  He showed up at the site where the armies had gathered.  Still a nice story of the Buddha stopping a war, but not an example of delaying speech for the appropriate moment even at some cost.

It's no longer possible for me to ask the abbott whether he meant this or another story or if he has a reference to another version of the same story which involved 3 days of battle. Instead, I'd like to ask the community about the main point:


Do you know of a canonical reference (from any flavor of Buddhism)   where the Buddha or another prominent figure decided to delay a    statement on account of timeliness and later said it with positive   impact? To be clear, instances where the Buddha decided not to say   something are numerous - I'm only looking for examples where he (or  another person) did end up saying it later.  Edit: Also, I know that the teaching on speaking at the appropriate time is quite clear - what I'm asking about is examples from the life of the ancients.
It would be particularly great if there are examples where the delay    did come at a cost.
In the Abhaya Sutta (MN58), the Buddha taught:


  (1) In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual,
  untrue, unbeneficial (or: not connected with the goal), unendearing &amp;
  disagreeable to others, he does not say them.
  
  (2) In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true,
  unbeneficial, unendearing &amp; disagreeable to others, he does not say
  them.
  
  (3) In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true,
  beneficial, but unendearing &amp; disagreeable to others, he has a sense
  of the proper time for saying them.
  
  (4) In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual,
  untrue, unbeneficial, but endearing &amp; agreeable to others, he does not
  say them.
  
  (5) In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true,
  unbeneficial, but endearing &amp; agreeable to others, he does not say
  them.
  
  (6) In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true,
  beneficial, and endearing &amp; agreeable to others, he has a sense of the
  proper time for saying them. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has
  sympathy for living beings."