[128] "Who are you who stand there in plain sight,¹ risen up from a pit of dung?
Doubtless you are a doer of evil deeds; why, pray, do you cry aloud?"
"Venerable sir,² I am a peta, in a woeful state, belonging to the world of Yama;
having done an evil deed, I have gone from here to the world of petas."
"What misdeed, then, was done by body, by speech, or by mind?
Through the ripening of what deed (kamma) do you undergo this suffering (dukkha)?"
"There was a resident monk (āvāsika) of mine — envious, stingy regarding families,
ensconced³ in my house, miserly, a reviler.
Having heard his words, I reviled the bhikkhus;
through the ripening of that deed I have gone from here to the world of petas."
"He who was the frequenter of your family (kulūpaka) — a foe in the guise of a friend —
that one of weak wisdom, at the breakup of the body, having passed on: to what destination has he gone?"
"I stand upon the head, upon the very crown, of that same doer of evil deeds;
and he, having reached the realm beyond, is my very own attendant.
What others void, venerable sir, that must serve as my food;
and what I myself void — upon that does he subsist."
#1 Ma.: "dīno patiṭṭhasi" — "(who are you that) stand there wretched?" #2 Yu.: "bhante." #3 Yu.: "ajjhāsito" (same sense: settled in).
The Gūthakhādakapetavatthu, the eighth.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.