Original Text
A high-ranking official had committed many unlawful acts, and his wife often admonished him with the principles of karmic retribution, but he refused to believe. By chance, there was a fortune-teller who could discern a person's official destiny, so the official went to consult him. The fortune-teller gazed at him for a long while before saying, "Your Excellency can still consume twenty piculs of rice and forty piculs of flour, and then your span of life will come to an end." The official returned and told his wife. Calculating that a man could only eat two piculs of flour per year, this left over twenty years of life—how could wrongdoing shorten one's years? He continued his lawless ways without restraint. After a year, he suddenly contracted diabetes, eating ravenously yet soon feeling hungry again, consuming over ten meals a day and night. Within less than a year, he died.
Commentary
This story discusses the principle of karmic retribution. It holds that a person's lifespan is a fixed constant, which can be measured by the amount of grain one consumes. This constant is often diminished by immoral deeds; a certain prominent figure, due to his lawless and tyrannical behavior, "ate a great deal yet soon grew hungry again," and ultimately "before a full year had passed, he died."