[114] "One feeds upon chaff (bhusa), yet another upon sāli rice,
and this woman upon her own flesh and blood;
but you feed upon dung, impure and loathsome —
of what [deed] is this the result (vipāka)?"
"This one formerly did violence to his mother;
this one, again, was a fraudulent merchant;
this one, having eaten meat,
practised deceit by false speech (musāvāda).
As for me, when I was a human being among human beings,
I was the lady of the house, mistress over the whole family.
Though goods were there, I would hide them away
and would not give a single thing from them;
I covered it over with false speech:
'There is no such thing in my house —
if I am hiding what is there,
may dung be my food!'
Through the result of both —
of that kamma and of the false speech —
my meal of fragrant sāli rice
turns to dung for me.
And deeds are never barren,
for kamma does not perish:
foul-smelling filth, teeming with worms,
I both eat and drink."
The Bhusapetavatthu (Story of the Chaff Peta), the fourth, is ended.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.