法苑珠林 74.20

74.20

Furthermore, the Ekottarika-āgama says: The Buddha addressed the monks: 'If a person acts as a thief and steals another's property, and is seized by the owner, bound, and delivered to the king to be punished for his crime of theft, the king then sends men to lock him in prison, or cut off his hands and feet, or amputate his ears and nose, or flay his skin, or pull out his sinews, or hang him upside down, or saw him apart, or roast him with fire, or boil him in hot water, or bind and wrap his head with raw leather, or pour molten copper over his body, or pierce his loins with a long stake, or have a vicious elephant trample him to death, or rip open his belly, pull out his entrails, and stuff it with grass, or bind his hands behind his back, beat the ominous drum, lead him to the execution ground in the marketplace, and behead him beneath the post, or dismember his form joint by joint, or hack him with knives, or shoot him with arrows—thus killing him with various kinds of harsh torment.
'By the cause and condition of this evil karma of theft, after his life ends he is born in hell: blazing fire burns his body, molten copper is poured into his mouth, with caldrons of boiling water, hearths of coals, mountains of knives, trees of swords, glowing ashes, excrement and feces, being ground in mills, and pounded in mortars. He undergoes various such sufferings, his bitter pains and venomous agonies impossible to calculate, with no date of escape for hundreds of thousands of myriads of years.
'When his hell offense is exhausted, he is born among animals: elephants, horses, cattle, sheep, camels, donkeys, dogs, and the like, for hundreds of thousands of years repaying the labor of others.
'When his animal offense is exhausted, he is born among hungry ghosts: his hunger, thirst, and distress impossible to describe fully, never hearing even the name of water or broth, enduring such suffering for hundreds of thousands of years.
'When his offense in the evil destinies is exhausted, he is born among humans. If born among humans, he obtains two kinds of retributions: first, poverty, with clothes that do not cover his body and food that does not fill his mouth; second, constantly being plundered by kings, thieves, fire, water, and wicked bandits.'
Furthermore, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra says: 'What is called theft? If a person reflects: "May various kinds of grain and wheat mature for me alone, and cause the people of the world to suffer crop failure," constantly harboring such unwholesome thoughts. Furthermore, at another time, when sentient beings have meager merit and the crops in the fields yield no harvest, such an evil person, seeing the world in famine, gives rise to joy in his mind, thinking: "It is just as I wished!" He sells them in the market, using a crooked mind and deceitful trickery to measure the grain and wheat, deceiving people, and consummating the karma. If the mind reflects, it is called mental karma; when committing the deception, it is called deceptive karma; having committed the deceptive karma, it is called consummated karma.'