Markandeyapurana 8.14

8.14

kimu prāṇān vimuñcāmi kāṃ diśaṃ yāmyakiñcanaḥ /
yadi nāśaṃ gamiṣyāmi apradāya pratiśrutam //

The birds spoke:
Thus having spoken the brahman departed: and the Raja then took thought—“How shall I give him the fee which has been promised? Whence can I find powerful friends? Whence can I get wealth at this moment? Blameworthy is my present: how can I escape going downward? How much more am I abandoning life! To what region shall I, who am nothing, go, if I perish without having performed my promise? I shall become a robber of brahmans, a worm, a wicked man, the vilest of the vile; or I shall become a slave—better indeed let me sell myself.”