Desire, greed, anger and ignorance are all factors in causing a soul to be reborn as a hungry ghost because they are motives for people to perform evil deeds.

[citation needed] In the Buddhist tradition, hungry ghosts appear in stories from the Chuan-chi po-yuan ching ("Sutra of One Hundred Selected Legends") that is from the early third century.

[13][page needed] The legends often speak of hungry ghosts who, in a previous lifetime, were greedy women who refused to give away food.

[13][page needed] Other stories in the Buddhist tradition come from the Sutra on Ghosts Questioning Maudgalyāyana 鬼問目連經 (Gui wen Mulian jing).

One of the stories tells of a diviner who constantly misled people due to his own avarice, and thus, he was reborn as a hungry ghost.

[4][page needed] The Avadānaśataka is one of the earliest collections of stories about hungry ghosts and was compiled by a Buddhist monk from northwest India between the second and fourth centuries CE.

[19] The oral tradition of Chinese ancestral worship believes that the ghosts of the ancestors may be granted permission to return to the world of the living at a certain time of the year.

[14] According to tradition, during this month, the gates of hell are opened up and the hungry ghosts are free to roam the earth where they seek food and entertainment.

It is believed that "hell money" is a valid currency in the underworld and helps ghosts to live comfortably in the afterlife.

[22] Families also pay tribute to other unknown wandering ghosts so that these homeless souls do not intrude on their lives and bring misfortune.

[23] The chief Taoist priest of the town wears an ornate crown of five gold and red panels, a practice borrowed from Buddhism.

This represented the five most powerful deities (The Jade Emperor, Lord Guan, Tu Di Gong, Mazu and Xi Wangmu).

After the music begins to play, the priest hits the bell to call the hungry ghosts back to the table.

[23] Fifteen days after the feast, to make sure all the hungry ghosts find their way back to hell, people float lanterns on water and set them outside their houses.

Spirits are thought to be dangerous, and can take many forms, including snakes, moths, birds, foxes, wolves, and tigers.

One story refers to a ghost which takes the form of a pretty girl and seduces a young man until a priest intervenes and sends the spirit back to hell.

[24] During the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, children are advised (usually by an elder in the family) to be home before dark, and not to wander the streets at night for fear a ghost might possess them.

People will generally avoid driving at night, for fear of a "collision", or spiritual offence, which is any event leading to illness or misfortune.

Any person attending a show at indoor entertainment venues (getai) will notice the first row of chairs is left empty.

yi dwags, Sanskrit: preta) have their own realm depicted on the Bhavacakra and are represented as teardrop or paisley-shaped with bloated stomachs and necks too thin to pass food so that attempting to eat is also incredibly painful.

[citation needed] In Mahayana Buddhism Chenrezig offers the hungry ghosts the nectar flowing from his fingers that relieves their suffering.

Gaki (餓鬼) are the spirits of jealous or greedy people who, as punishment for their mortal vices, have been cursed with an insatiable hunger for a particular substance or object.

Traditionally, this is something repugnant or humiliating, such as human corpses or feces, though in more recent legends, it may be virtually anything, no matter how bizarre.

Jikininki (食人鬼 "people-eating ghosts") are the spirits of greedy, selfish or impious individuals who are cursed after death to seek out and eat human corpses.

Unlike mankind's hunger that comes and goes for hungry ghosts "there is only an ongoing, alleviated gnawing of the stomach and parching of the throat."

The depictions and stories about hungry ghosts especially in the early Indian context can show the viewer a commentary about the "manual scavengers", members of the lowest caste in India.

This malnourishment causes a disorder known as kwashiorkor that encompasses symptoms like stomach bloating from fluid retention, hair and tooth loss and dry and cracked skin.

[38] The influential Indian monk Vasubandhu used hungry ghosts in his argumentation of the Yogācāra concept that "everything in the three realms is nothing but appearance."

The author offers an example about a river perceived as clear by humans, but full of pus by hungry ghosts.

They spend half a day grinding coffee beans in a mortar, folding plastic bags into triangles, sweeping up leaves, and so on.