The Angel in Hell

A wicked man met the Buddha after death.

The Buddha said, “You took a life. You must descend into hell and never be reborn.”

The wicked man laughed. “The person I killed was a cunning villain. Though he never killed anyone with his own hands, he indirectly drove thirty or forty people to their deaths and shattered more than a dozen families. I was saving lives. That was a good deed, not an evil one.”

The Buddha said, “A sophistry. Whatever anyone else has done cannot change the fact that you killed someone.”

The wicked man smiled. So angels did not live in heaven after all.