Verse 16

¹⁶A cow belonging to some leading brahmin had strayed and got mixed into my herd, and I, not knowing it, gave her away to a twice-born man. ¹⁷As she was being led off, her owner saw her and said to him, She is mine. The man taking her said, She is mine: Nrga gave her to me. ¹⁸The two brahmins, quarrelling and each pressing his own case, said to me: You are the giver, you are the thief. Hearing that, I did not know where I stood. ¹⁹Caught in a hard place over dharma, I pleaded with them both: I will give a hundred thousand of the best cows. Let this one be handed over. ²⁰Show your favour to your servant, who did not know. Lift me out of this hard place. I am falling into a foul hell.

²¹I will not take it, king, said the owner, and walked off. I want nothing else, not ten thousand cows, said the other, and went away.