What Determines the Karmic Retribution of the Sin of Stealing?

Question: When I was in school and had just started working, I had my wallet and phone stolen on a bus. At the time I felt very indignant, but I have long since forgotten about it. If the manas truly no longer cares, does the thief's karmic offense thereby get eliminated?

Answer: The thief's offense of stealing will not escape its retributive result just because you forgive him. As long as an offense has been committed, a corresponding retribution must necessarily follow. The retribution brought about by stealing is repaying the debt many times over and poverty; in the future he will likewise be stolen from. So even if your manas no longer cares, his offense remains a fact. In the future, the tathāgatagarbha will still bring to fruition the retributive result of his stealing. As for you no longer seeking repayment, that is your own affair—perhaps in the future he will not have to repay you. Although you have forgotten, the thief's mind has not changed; his karmic offense and its retribution depend on his mind. If he repents and makes amends, his offense can be lightened. Although you have forgiven him, his tathāgatagarbha still records this matter, and in the future the retribution will be brought to fruition according to the original facts of this matter and the nature of his mind.

The Buddha forgives everyone and does not hold anything against anyone—have the offenses of all beings thereby been lightened? Those who fell directly into hell before the Buddha—this had nothing to do with whether the Buddha forgave them; it was related to whether the offender's manas could genuinely repent. Even after repentance, the karmic retribution must still be undergone, only more lightly. Those who slandered an arhat sincerely repented right before the arhat at the time, yet in the end they still fell into hell. The reason was that their offenses were too grave. But had they not repented, the karma of falling into hell would have been even heavier, and the time of undergoing evil retribution even longer.

Repentance can only lighten an offense; completely eliminating it is very difficult, depending on the intensity and earnestness of the repentance, as well as the gravity of the offense. If one wishes to be completely free of evil retribution, the only way is to attain realization of the fruits and eliminate the karma of the three evil destinies. Even after attaining realization of the fruits, one must still undergo retribution—only the evil retribution is undergone in the human realm rather than in the three evil destinies. Those who have not attained realization of the fruits must, in most cases, undergo retribution in the three evil destinies. However great the evil retribution undergone in the human realm, it is still smaller than that undergone in the three evil destinies; however small the evil retribution in the three evil destinies, it is still greater than that in the human realm. Therefore, no matter what kind of suffering one encounters, one should persist in living and finish experiencing the suffering in the human realm. Do not leave the suffering to be experienced in the three evil destinies—the suffering there is beyond description.