The Sin of Stealing the Food Presently Belonging to Monks and Falling into the Avīci Hell

Original text of the Sūtra on the Wholesome and Unwholesome Requitals (Zhengfa Nianchu Jing):云何偷盗乐行多作。云何乐行多作。盗已堕于地狱。此恶戒人。性自偷盗。近恶知识。若恶知识。近住之人。与彼相随。则行偷盗。

有下中上。何者为下。谓王法等。如前所说。何者为中。非福田所。偷盗彼物。此盗为中。何者为上。佛法僧物。微少偷盗。是则为上。

Explanation: Why do some people delight in stealing and steal frequently? Why is it that after delighting in stealing and stealing frequently, they fall into hell? Because this person of evil precepts, who has gravely violated the precepts, has a disposition habitually inclined toward stealing, and also frequently draws near to bad spiritual friends, being influenced and stained by them and acquiring evil habits. If a person dwelling near bad spiritual friends closely follows them, that person will engage in acts of theft.

Stealing offenses are divided into three grades: lower, middle, and upper. What is the lower grade? Violating the king's law and the like is a lower-grade stealing offense, as stated previously. What is the middle grade? Stealing things from places that are not fields of merit (that is, not from the Three Jewels and not from one's parents) is a middle-grade stealing offense. What is the upper grade? Even a slight theft of the property of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha is an upper-grade stealing offense.

Here it is taught that the most serious form of stealing is stealing the property of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, the Three Jewels; among stealing karmas, this one is the heaviest. By "stealing" it means that something belongs to the Three Jewels, and without the owner's consent, one takes it by one's own intent, treating it as one's own property and using it at one's own discretion. Even if it is something extremely trivial, the retributive result is extremely heavy—for example, tissues, towels, and the like. If one steals things more valuable than these, the retributive result is even heavier. If there are those who have committed such offenses, they should find ways to make amends themselves in order to lessen their karmic obstructions. Those who frequently go to monasteries should reflect and examine themselves on whether they have committed any theft, including petty trifles of gain; if any are found, they should promptly repent of these karmic offenses and, as much as possible, make up for the losses caused.

Making offerings to the Three Jewels can bring immeasurable merit, but stealing and appropriating the property of the Three Jewels brings immeasurable offenses and immeasurable debts. The Three Jewels are the greatest field of merit in the world: the merit gained is the greatest, and the offense incurred is also the greatest. The Kṣitigarbha Sūtra says that even taking a single blade of grass from a monastery carries an offense, let alone things more valuable than a blade of grass—including water, electricity, gas, food, tea, and various utensils. Appropriation also falls within the scope of stealing, and it includes not only food, drink, and objects, but also the various rights and duties belonging to the Three Jewels. When the authority and duties that properly belong to the Three Jewels are usurped by others who insist on making decisions on the Three Jewels' behalf, deploying and allocating the people, wealth, and property belonging to the Three Jewels, and oppressing and riding roughshod over the Three Jewels, the offense is even greater. Appropriating and seizing the merit, status, and reputation of the Three Jewels also counts as stealing, and this offense may be even greater still.

If we can strictly keep these precepts without violating them, the mind will naturally settle into purity, no longer thinking about what to gain or what advantage to take; gathering the mind in, meditative concentration (samādhi) will arise naturally. If a person's mind cannot settle, there must certainly be matters weighing on the mind. If one lets go of all these matters and no longer dwells on them, why worry that meditative concentration cannot be cultivated? It is good to form the habit of taking advantage of no person and no organization. With this good habit, one will incur far fewer debts and lose far less merit. The very place where one gains an advantage is precisely where one loses it. In this world there is fundamentally no advantage to be gained at all, because cause and effect exist: every time one takes an advantage, a record is made in each person's tathāgatagarbha, and when the conditions ripen, it will all be repaid a thousandfold, ten-thousandfold, immeasurably multiplied. The later the repayment, the higher the accrued interest, and the more that must be repaid.

Original text:彼佛法僧。若盗僧物。佛法能净。盗佛法物。僧不能净。若盗众僧现食用物。堕大地狱。头面在下。若取属僧所常食物。则堕无间阿鼻地狱。宽广闇等。以重福田。微少偷盗。以有心念。乐行多作。彼少偷盗。堕于地狱畜生饿鬼。若复忏悔。不生随喜。心中生悔。彼不定受。若偷盗人。无量方便而行偷盗。以如是故。名为偷盗。

Explanation: Among stealing the property of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, if one steals the property of the Saṅgha, it can be purified by means of the Buddha's Dharma; but if one steals the property of the Buddha and the Dharma, the Saṅgha cannot purify it. If one steals the food that the community of monks is presently eating, one will fall into the great hell, head and face downward. If one takes the food that regularly belongs to the Saṅgha for their use, one will fall into the Avīci hell of uninterrupted suffering, which is extremely wide, extremely vast, and extremely dark; one's body is as large as the hell itself, and instruments of torture cover the entire material body. Because the Saṅgha is a weighty field of merit, even a slight theft is an offense warranting the Avīci hell. Because there is a mental intention to steal, a delight in committing theft, and much stealing karma enacted, even stealing trifling things will cause one to fall into the destinies of hell, animals, and hungry ghosts.

If, after stealing, one openly confesses and repents, others will not necessarily rejoice in it; and if after stealing one feels remorse in the mind, others will not necessarily accept it. If a person who steals commits theft through immeasurable expedient means, it is for this reason that it is called stealing.