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The Mahapurana, Uttara Purana
Having said this, the king, in private, instructed the nurse, "Go to the house of the minister Sribhuthi and tell his wife that I have sent you. Give her the casket for Bhadramitra. He has sent these two things for identification." Thus, deceiving her, the queen Ramdatta sent the nurse to the minister's house to retrieve the casket of jewels.
The king then placed other jewels in the casket and called Bhadramitra to him in private. "Is this your casket?" he asked.
"Oh, king, this is indeed our casket, but some other precious jewels have been mixed in with it," Bhadramitra replied.
"These jewels are not mine, and these are mine," said Bhadramitra, a man of pure intellect and the best among the righteous, as he took only his own jewels.
The king was very pleased and bestowed upon Bhadramitra the position of a very wealthy merchant, along with the title "Satyaghoṣa" - making him the king's chief merchant.
"Satyaghoṣa, the minister, is a liar, a sinner, and has committed many sins. Therefore, he should be punished," the king declared, following the advice of the Dharma authorities.
Thus, the city guards, acting on the king's orders, decided upon three punishments for Sribhuthi, the minister: 1) all his wealth should be confiscated, 2) he should be struck thirty times with a vajramusti (iron fist) by a strong wrestler, and 3) he should be fed fresh cow dung from three bronze plates. The city guards then punished him with these three types of punishments.
Sribhuthi, filled with hatred for the king, died and was corrupted by the practice of harmful meditation. After death, he became a snake named Agandhana in the king's treasury.
Taking another's wealth unjustly is called stealing. It is considered to be of two types: natural and circumstantial.
Natural stealing arises from the inherent nature of a person, born from the influence of the kṣayā of greed and the rise of wicked competitors. A person with a natural inclination to steal will never be satisfied, even if he has crores of wealth in his house and spends crores. Just as everyone is afflicted by hunger and other afflictions, so too is he afflicted by the desire to steal.
When a person's expenses for his wife, children, etc., exceed his income, he may resort to stealing. This is due to the influence of greed and its harmful consequences.