法苑珠林 53.79

53.79

The Sūtra of One Hundred Parables says: Formerly, a man went to his wife's house. Seeing them pounding rice, he went over to that place, stole some rice, and stuffed it into his mouth. The wife came, saw her husband, and wished to speak with him. With his mouth full of rice, he did not respond at all; ashamed before his wife, he was unwilling to spit it out, and for that reason did not speak. The wife, surprised that he did not speak, felt him with her hand, thinking his mouth was swollen, and said to her father, 'My husband has just arrived, and suddenly his mouth has swollen so that he cannot speak at all.' Her father immediately called a physician to treat him. The physician said, 'This disease is extremely severe; it looks like a stony ulcer. Only by cutting it open with a knife can it be cured.' He immediately cut his mouth open with a knife; the rice came out from within, and the matter was exposed. People of the world are also like this: committing evil deeds and violating pure precepts, they conceal their faults and are unwilling to disclose them, falling into hell, the animal realm, or the realm of hungry ghosts—just as that fool, because of petty shame, was unwilling to spit out the rice, and only when his mouth was cut open with a knife were his faults revealed.