法苑珠林 79.34

79.34

宋唐文伯。東海戇榆人也。弟好蒲博家資都盡。村中有寺。經過人或以錢上佛。弟屢竊取。久後癩病。卜者云。祟由盜佛錢。父怒曰。佛是何神。乃令我兒致此。吾當試更虜奪。若復能病可也。前縣令何欣之婦。上織成寶蓋帶四枚。乃盜取之。以為腰帶。不盈百日復得惡病。發瘡之始起腰帶處。世時在元嘉年初爾。

Tang Wenbo of the Song was a man of Gangyu in Donghai. His younger brother was fond of gambling and had completely exhausted their family fortune. In their village there was a temple. Passersby sometimes offered money to the Buddha. The younger brother repeatedly stole it. Long afterward, he contracted leprosy. A diviner said, "The affliction is due to stealing the Buddha's money." The father said in anger, "What kind of spirit is the Buddha that he could cause my son to suffer this? I will try to plunder and rob again; if he can make me sick too, then so be it!" The wife of the former magistrate He Xin had offered four woven bands for a jeweled canopy. He then stole them to use as a waistbelt. Before a hundred days had elapsed, he also contracted a virulent disease. The sores first broke out at the place where the waistbelt was worn. This was at the beginning of the Yuanjia reign period.