法苑珠林 70.27

70.27

Second is stealing and forcibly robbing others of their wealth. Such a person is either punished with knives and staves by the owner of the wealth, instantly broken apart, or arrested by the king's law and bound in prison, flogged, beaten with staves, subjected to the five poisons, and executed in the public marketplace, their clan reduced to ashes. Upon death, they enter hell, holding fire in their hands and having molten copper poured down their throats; they seek death but cannot die. Only when the offense is exhausted do they emerge. They become hungry ghosts: wishing to drink water, the water turns into pus; whatever food they eat turns into charcoal; their bodies constantly bear heavy burdens, pursued by manifold afflictions. Or they become animals, dying repeatedly under changing blades, offering their flesh to feed others to repay their former debts. I saw that the offenses of thieves are like this; not daring to steal again, this was my second teacher. The Buddha then spoke a gāthā, saying: