Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c6.2652

v1.c6.2652

The thief’s uncle had been a pious merchant in Vesālī, but had been beheaded for alleged implication in his nephew’s theft. He had been reborn as a *peta*, and because of his good deeds he possessed various powers. By reason, however, of having once hidden, in jest, the clothes of a friend who was bathing in the river, he was born naked. Every night he came to see his nephew and encouraged him to go on living, in spite of his impalement, because the *peta* knew that suffering in hell awaited the thief after death.