[396] And how, great king, is a person light and heading to darkness (joti tamaparāyano)? Here, great king, some person has been reborn in a high family — in an affluent khattiya family (khattiyamahāsāla), in an affluent brahmin family, or in an affluent householder family — one that is rich, of great wealth, of great possessions, with abundant gold and silver, with abundant goods and means, with abundant wealth and grain. And he is handsome, good-looking, graceful, endowed with supreme beauty of complexion; he is a gainer of food, of drink, of clothing, of vehicles, of garlands, scents, and unguents, of bedding, lodging, and lighting. He engages in misconduct (duccarita) by body, he engages in misconduct by speech, he engages in misconduct by mind. Having engaged in misconduct by body, having engaged in misconduct by speech, having engaged in misconduct by mind, with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in a state of deprivation (apāya), a bad destination (duggati), a place of ruin (vinipāta), in hell (niraya). Just as, great king, a man might descend from a palace to an elephant's back, or descend from an elephant's back to a horse's back, or descend from a horse's back to a palanquin, or descend from a palanquin to the ground, or from the ground might enter into darkness¹ — of just such a likeness, great king, do I declare this person to be. It is in this way, great king, that a person is light and heading to darkness.
¹ [Editorial footnote in the Siam Raṭṭha edition:] At this point the word "kho" is found (etthantare kho-saddo dissati).
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.