The cruelest legal punishment in Jesus' day was crucifixion, but this image of drowning represents a Roman punishment more horrifying to Jewish hearers than crucifixion and one only rarely tolerated among them (Jeremias 1972:180; for an exception see Jos. Ant. 14.450). When people in a community had much grain to grind, they took it to the community mill, pouring it between an upper and lower millstone. Jesus refers here not to the lighter millstone turned by a woman's hand but to the heavier community kind turned by an ass-heavy enough to take one quickly to the bottom of the sea (Deissmann 1978:81; compare 1 Enoch 48:9). Jesus says this punishment would be an act of mercy compared to what is in store for those who turn little ones from Christ's way-be they arrogant university professors, torturers enforcing Islamic law or gossipers within the church.