In a certain town lived a Brahman named Sama Sarma who had undertaken the labour of maintaining the sacred fire. One day in the month of February, when a gentle breeze was blowing, when the sky was veiled in clouds and a drizzling rain was falling, he went to another village to beg a victim for the sacrifice. Sama Sarma said to a rich man,”I wish to make an offering on the approaching day of the new moon. Please give me a victim.” And the rich man gave him a plump goat. Sama Sarma checked the goat and found it fit for sacrifice, placed it on his shoulder, and started in haste for his own city.

On the way he was met by three rogues whose stomachs were pinched with hunger. On seeing the plump goat on his shoulder, three rogues planned to fool him, get the goat, and ward off the cold. So the first of them changed his dress, met Sama Sarma, the Brahman, and said to him: “O! pious Brahman, why are you doing a thing so unconventional and so ridiculous? You are carrying an unclean animal, a dog, on your shoulder. Are you ignorant of the verse: The dog and the rooster, the hangman, the ass, the camel, defile you. Don’t touch them, but pass.”