Once upon a time in Mithila in the realm of Videha there was a king named Makhadeva, who ruled righteously. For successive periods of eighty-four thousand years he had respectively amused himself as prince, ruled as viceroy, and ruled as king. All these long years had he lived, when one day he said to his barber, “Tell me; when you see any grey hairs in my head.” So one day, years and years after, the barber did find a single grey hair, and he told the king so. The king said,“Pull it out and lay it in my palm.” The barber accordingly plucked the hair out and laid it in the king’s hand. The king had at that time still eighty-four thousand years more to live; but nevertheless at the sight of that one grey hair he was filled with deep emotion. He seemed to see the King of Death standing over him, or to be cooped within a blazing hut of leaves. He cried: “Foolish Makhadeva! grey hairs have come upon you before you have been able to rid yourself of depravities.” And as he thought and thought about the appearance of his grey hair, he grew aflame within; the sweat rolled down from his body; whilst his raiment oppressed him and seemed intolerable. King Makhadeva thought,“This very day I will renounce the world for the Brother’s life.”

To his barber he gave the grant of a village, which yielded a hundred thousand pieces of money. He sent for his eldest son and said to him: “My son, grey hairs are come upon me, and I am become old. I have had my fill of human joys, and fain would taste the joys divine; the time for my renunciation has come. Take the sovereignty upon yourself; as for me, I will take up my abode in the pleace called Makhadeva’s Mango-grove, and there tread the ascetic’s path.”

King Makhadeva, after becoming ascetic lived for eight-four thousand years and died. After that he was reborn in the Realm of Brahma. Passing then, he became a king again in Mithila, under the name of Nimi.