“Can you please tell me what heaven and hell are like?” he asked the wise man.
“Come with me and I will show you,” the wise man replied.
The two men walked down a long path until they came to a large house. The wise man took the old man inside, and there they found a large dining room with an enormous table covered with every kind of food imaginable. Around the table were many people all thin and hungry, who were holding 12-foot chopsticks. Every time they tried to feed themselves, the food fell off the chopsticks.
The old man said to the wise man, “Surely this must be hell. Will you now show me heaven?” The wise man said, “Yes, come with me.”
The two men left the house and walked further down the path until they reached another large house. Again they found a large dining room and in it a table filled with all kinds of delicious foods. The people there were happy and appeared well fed, but they also held 12-foot chopsticks.”
“How can this be? Said the old man. “These people have 12-foot chopsticks and yet they are happy and well fed.”
The wise man replied, “In heaven the people feed each other.”
