King Yama says to them, ‘My man, did it not occur to you—being sensible and mature—“I, too, am liable to be born. I’m not exempt from rebirth. I’d better do good by way of body, speech, and mind”?’ He says, ‘I couldn’t, sir. I was negligent.’ King Yama says to them, ‘My man, because you were negligent, you didn’t do good by way of body, speech, and mind. Well, they’ll definitely punish you to fit your negligence. That bad deed wasn’t done by your mother, father, brother, or sister. It wasn’t done by friends and colleagues, by relatives and kin, by ascetics and brahmins, or by the deities. That bad deed was done by you alone, and you alone will experience the result.’

Then King Yama grills them about the second messenger of the gods: ‘My man, did you not see the second messenger of the gods that appeared among human beings?’ He says, ‘I saw nothing, sir.’ King Yama says to them, ‘My man, did you not see among human beings an elderly woman or a man—eighty, ninety, or a hundred years old—bent double, crooked, leaning on a staff, trembling as they walk, ailing, past their prime, with teeth broken, hair grey and scanty or bald, skin wrinkled, and limbs blotchy?’ He says, ‘I saw that, sir.’