Once upon a time there was a peasant woman, and a very wicked woman she was. One day she died leaving not a single good deed behind. The devils caught hold of her and plunged her into the Lake of Hades.
Her guardian angel stood by and wondered what good deed of hers he could remember to tell God about. The angel mentioned, "Why, she once pulled up an onion from her garden and gave it to a beggar woman."
And God replied, "You take that onion then, hold it out to her in the lake, and let her take hold of it and be pulled out by it. If you can pull her out of the Lake of Hades, let her come into paradise. But if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is."
The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion toward her. "Come and catch hold," cried the angel. "I'll pull you out." And he began cautiously pulling her out. He had almost pulled her out when the other sinners in the lake, seeing how she was being saved, began clutching hold of her legs so they, too, could be pulled out.
However, she was a very wicked woman and began kicking at them. "I'm to be pulled out, not you. It's my onion, not yours. Let go." As soon as she uttered these words, the onion broke. The woman fell back into the Lake of Hades where she remains to this day.
And the guardian angel wept as he went away.
Fydor Dostoevski

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