268. After this the two angels and I felt a desire to see those who as the result of love of the world suffer from this imaginary longing or delusion that they possess the wealth of all. We perceived that this desire came upon us in order that we should get to know these people. Their homes were under the ground on which we stood, but above hell. So we looked at one another and said, 'Let us go.' We saw an opening and some steps, so we went down. We were told to approach them from the east, to avoid entering the cloud of their delusion and putting our intellects in shadow, which would at the same time obscure our sight.
[2] Suddenly we caught sight of a building made of reeds, and therefore full of chinks, standing in the cloud, which continually seeped out like smoke from the chinks in three of the walls. We went in and saw fifty people on one side and fifty on the other, sitting on benches. They had their backs to the east and south and faced the west and north. Each had a table in front of him with bulging money-bags on it, and around the bags piles of gold coins.
'Are those,' we asked each, 'the wealth of all in the world?' 'Not all in the world,' they said, 'but all in the kingdom.' Their speech sounded like a whistle, and they themselves had round faces which had a ruddy look like the shell of a snail. The pupils of their eyes seemed to sparkle against a green background; this was caused by the light of their delusion.
We took up a position among them and said, 'Do you believe that you possess all the wealth of the kingdom?' 'Yes,' they replied. Then we asked, 'Which one of you possesses this?' 'Each of us,' they said. 'How can you each possess this?' we asked. 'There are many of you.' 'We each of us,' they said, 'know that everything that belongs to another is ours. We are not allowed to think, much less say, "What is mine is not yours," but we are allowed to think and say, "What is yours is mine."'
Even to our eyes the coins on the tables looked as if made of pure gold. But when we let in light from the east, they turned out to be small particles of gold which they had magnified to such an extent by means of shared joint delusion. They said that anyone who comes in has to bring with him some gold, which they cut up into pieces, and these into small particles, and these they then magnify by concentrating their delusive powers with one intention, to make them look like coins of the larger sort.
[3] Then we said, 'Were you not born rational human beings? Where have you acquired that foolish fancy?' 'We know,' they said, 'that our vanity is fanciful, but because it pleases the interiors of our minds, we come in here and are delighted by seeming to possess everyone's wealth. But we do not stay here for more than a few hours, and having spent this time here we go out, and each time sanity returns to our minds. But still the attraction of our day-dreams from time to time comes upon us, and makes us alternate between coming in and going out, so that by turns we are wise and crazy. We know too that a harsh fate awaits those who cunningly filch other people's property.' 'What fate is that?' we asked. 'They are swallowed up,' they said, 'and thrown naked into some prison in hell, where they are obliged to work for clothing and for food, and then for a few pennies which they hoard and make their hearts' desire. But if they do harm to their companions, they have to give up some of their pennies as a fine.'
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