Standing to one side, the godling Khema recited these verses in the Buddha’s presence:

“Fools and simpletons behave like their own worst enemies, doing wicked deeds that ripen as bitter fruit.

It’s not good to do a deed that plagues you later on, for which you weep and wail, as its effect stays with you.

It is good to do a deed that doesn’t plague you later on, that gladdens and cheers, as its effect stays with you.”

“As a precaution, you should do what you know is for your own welfare. A thinker, an attentive one would not proceed thinking like the cart driver.

Suppose a cart driver leaves the highway, so even and well compacted. They enter upon a rough road, and fret as soon as their axle is broken.

So too, a dullard leaves the good to follow what’s against the good. Fallen in the jaws of death, they fret like one whose axle is broken.”