[336] This is what the Blessed One said. …
If one should know oneself as dear, one should not yoke oneself to evil;
for that happiness is not easily gained by one who does wrong deeds.
When one is seized by the End-Maker (antaka), abandoning human existence,
what indeed is one's own? And what does one take along when one goes?
And what follows along with one, like a shadow that trails after?
Both the merit (puñña) and the evil (pāpa) that a mortal does here —
that indeed is one's own, and that one takes along when one goes;
that is what follows along with one, like a shadow that trails after.
Therefore one should do what is good, as a store for the life to come;
merits are the support of living beings in the world beyond.
The Attarakkhita Sutta, the Fifth.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.