Ancient Moral Story: Good and Evil Have Just Rewards

It's hard to imagine what one would think about just as one is unexpectedly faced with death; but the thought at that moment determines one's fate.

There is a story in Buddhism: in the past, a person named Gan Daduo committed all manner of crimes. One day while he was walking on a street, he saw that he was about to step on a spider. A kind thought came to him: "A spider is a small life, but why should I kill it?" So he stepped over the spider and avoided killing it.

Since he had done so many bad things, he fell into an endless hell when he died. While he was suffering, a silver thread from a spider fell down from the sky. Feeling as if he had found a boat after falling into the sea, he quickly climbed up the thread with his all strength to escape from the pains of hell. But as he was climbing, he looked down and saw many other sentient beings were also climbing up after him. He was afraid that the fine thread could not stand so much weight and would break, ruining his chance to escape. He kicked down all of the others one after another. But as he was kicking his companions, the spider thread broke, and Gan Daduo and all the sentient beings fell into hell again to suffer in endless misery.

His earlier kind thought had given Gan Daduo a chance to escape from hell; but his bad thought had drawn him back to hell to suffer again. It seems that one thought can determine one's fate. It all depends on whether that thought is good or evil.