法苑珠林 79.34

79.34

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.