"Droupadi said, 'O Lord! This is not the occasion for fun; this is testing time for us. Save us, do not laugh at our plight.' She wiped the flow of tears with the border of her Sari. She prayed, both hands extended in supplication. Krishna lifted up her head with His hand, and said in soft assuring tones, 'Child! Tears collect in the eyes of women at the slightest provocation. But, can My hunger be appeased by tears?' Krishna was in a sarcastic mood, evidently. Droupadi replied, 'Gopala! You are the second supplicant at our door today. But, if we do not give you what you ask, you will not curse us and bring destruction on us. But, the other supplicant is waiting with ten thousand followers to appease his hunger by a dinner on all of us! We are all about to be reduced to ashes; where can we get even a single grain in this forest? How can I appease the hunger of so many people, at such short notice, in this desolate place.' She explained the reason for the gloom that had overtaken them."

"Gopala laughed aloud. 'Ten thousand guests have come, you say. But, I do not see a single one here! I can only laugh at your words. You are throwing away the child on your hip to fondle the children who are afar. First, give Me enough for My hunger; you can then think of satisfying people who are far away.' Krishna was adamant that He should be attended to, first; He acted the part of a hungry person so perfectly. Droupadi had to explain her predicament. 'Lord, the vessel had a variety of food; they were all served and finished; I took my food last. I have cleaned the sacred vessel gifted by the sun and kept it aside. How can I get food from it now? How can I appease Your hunger? You are our only refuge. If you who know everything, cause us suffering, what shall we say of others?' Droupadi wept again."

"Gopala said, 'Well, bring here the vessel. Even if I get from it a particle of some eatable, I shall be content.' So, she went in and brought the vessel and placed it in the hands of Krishna. Gopala passed His fingers carefully inside the vessel, seeking some particle that might have escaped the scraping and washing. He found in the neck of the vessel a fraction of a cooked leaf. So, He asked 'Droupadi! You seem to have had a leafy dish for lunch today!'"

Droupadi was surprised that Krishna was able to discover a fractional leaf in the vessel she had scrubbed clean. 'This must be your miracle; whatever work I do, I do efficiently. I could not have scrubbed it so shabbily, she laughed. When she approached Krishna to see the leaf, Krishna showed it to her, saying, 'Look! I got this from your vessel. This thing is enough to appease, not only My hunger, but the hunger of all beings in the universe.' Then He put it on His tongue with the end of His finger and swallowing exclaimed. 'Ah! How nice! My hunger is gone!'"

"At that very moment, Durvasa on the river bank and his ten thousand disciples felt their stomachs over-full with food. Their hunger too was gone; they experienced supreme happiness, free from the pangs of hunger they suffered a minute previously. They communicated their wonder to each other in gestures and then, in words. 'Our stomachs are too full already, there is no space in them for even an additional grain of rice! Dharmaraja will be waiting for us there with a heavy banquet of extra-delicious dishes and he will insist on our doing full justice to his hospitality. But where have we the space for the feast he has prepared? We are indeed in a terrible fix!', they said. Some one then remembered the incident when their master, Durvasa, cursed Ambarisha and suffered discomfiture at the hands of the very victim of his curse, through the intercession of Krishna."