The king said: ‘Your people say, Nāgasena, that though a man should have lived a hundred years an evil life, yet if, at the moment of death, thoughts of the Buddha should enter his mind, he will be reborn among the gods. This I don’t believe. And thus do they also say: “By one case of destruction of life a man may be reborn in purgatory.” That, too, I cannot believe.’

‘But tell me, O king. Would even a tiny stone float on the water without a boat?’

‘Certainly not.’

‘Very well; but would not a hundred cart-loads of stones float on the water if they were loaded in a boat?’

‘Yes, they would float right enough.’

‘Well, good deeds are like the boat.’

‘Very good, Nāgasena!’