in the country of Anga, called Vrikshaghata.  In it there lived a rich sacrificing Brahman named Vishnusvamin.  And he had a wife equal to himself in birth.  And by her he had three sons born to him, who were distinguished for preternatural acuteness.  In course of time they grew up to be young men.  One day, when he had begun a sacrifice, he sent those three brothers to the sea to fetch a turtle.  So off they went, and when they had found a turtle, the eldest said to his two brothers, “Let one of you take the turtle for our father’s sacrifice; I cannot take it, as it is all slippery with slime.”  When the eldest said this, the two younger ones answered him, “If you hesitate about taking it, why should not we?” When the eldest heard that, he said, “You two must take the turtle; if you do not, you will have obstructed your father’s sacrifice, and then you will certainly sink down to hell.”  When he told the younger brother’s this, they laughed and said to him, “If you see our duty so clearly, why do you not see that your own is the same?” Then the eldest said, “What, do you not know how fastidious I am?  I am very fastidious about eating, and I cannot be expected to touch what is repulsive.”  The middle brother, when he heard this speech of his, said to his brother, “Then I am a more fastidious person than you, for I am a most fastidious connoisseur of the fair sex.”  When the middle one said this, the eldest went on to say, “Then let the younger of you two take the turtle.”  Then the youngest brother frowned, and in his turn said to the two elder, “You fools, I am very fastidious about beds; so I am the most fastidious of the lot.”

So the three brothers fell to quarrelling with one another, and being completely under the dominion of conceit, they left that turtle and went off immediately to the court of the king of that country, whose name was Prasenajit, and who lived in a city named Vitankapura, in order to have the dispute decided.  There they had themselves announced by the warder, and went in, and gave the king a circumstantial account of their case.  The king said, “Wait here, and I will put you all in turn to the proof;’ so they agreed and remained there.  And at the time that the king took his meal, he had them conducted to a seat of honour, and given delicious food fit for a king, possessing all the six flavours.  And while all were feasting around him, the Brahman who was fastidious about eating along of the company did not eat, but sat there with his face puckered up with disgust.  The king himself asked the Brahman why he did not eat his food, though it was sweet and fragrant, and he slowly answered him, “I perceive in this food an evil smell of the reek from corpses, so I cannot bring myself to eat it, however delicious it may be.”  When he said this before the assembled multitude, they all smelled it by the king’s orders, and said, “This food is prepared from white rice and is good and fragrant.”  But the Brahman who was so fastidious about eating would not touch it, but stopped his nose.  Then the king reflected, and proceeded to inquire into the matter, and found out from his officers that the food had been made from rice which had been grown in a field near the burning ghat of a certain village.  Then the king was much astonished, and, being pleased, he said to him, “In truth you are very particular as to what you eat; so eat of some other dish.”