This excerpt has been taken from which of the following texts :

Read the passage and answer the question :

"Though the wise should hope, by this virtue ... by this penance I will gain karma ... and the fool should by the same means hope to gradually rid himself of his karma, neither of them can do it. Pleasure and pain measured out as it were, cannot be altered in the course of samsara (transmigration). It can neither be lessened or increased ... just as a ball of string will when thrown unwind to its full length, so fool and wise alike will take their course and make an end of sorrow".