Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1767

c8.1767

Feeling sorry for his own actions Damanaka went to his brother and said, "All this happened because of our own fault. I shall tell you a story about a self-made calamity. Once an ascetic named Devaśarmā was afraid of robbers. So he stitched into his robes all the money he possessed. Somehow a robber named Āṣādhabhūti came to know of it and he made friends with the ascetic and acted as his servant pretending to be very faithful. Devaśarmā got confidence in him and one day he went to bathe handing over all his guarded wealth into the hands of Āṣādhabhūti. On his way back from the river after his bath Devaśarmā saw two goats fighting against each other. Blood was flowing from the heads of both the goats and still the fight continued. A fox came there to drink the fresh blood flowing from their heads and he went and started licking the blood that had dropped between the two fighting goats. The goats came again and hit against each other with force and the fox that was standing between the two and licking the blood greedily was crushed to death. When he returned after witnessing the fight the ascetic found that his servant had gone away with his cash."