Pakkanar, was one of the twelve children of Vararuchi, an upper caste Hindu, and was brought up by a poor paraya family (one of the most backward communities in Kerala.) He used to earn his living by selling winnows made of bamboo. Every day he will go to the nearby forest and collect bamboo to make the winnows. His wife will make seven winnows out of it. Pakkanar used to sell the winnows by taking it from house to house. He will make bitter bargaining with the household women, to get good price for his winnows. He will sell the seven winnows only if he was offered four rupees in total. But he will collect only one rupee in a day. Once he gets that much of money in hand he will leave the place when the ladies enter their home with the winnow they bought, to get money for him. They could not understand the strange logic behind selling the winnows by hard bargaining and leaving the place without collecting the money. This news spread from ear to ear up to the notice of the king.

The king called Pakkanar to his palace and inquired about his strange behavior. Pakkanar submitted,

"O, my Lord, I believe that human beings are working hard to earn money to satisfy their following needs.

The last one rupee, I am expected to give as donation to the poor and needy. Thus I need four Rupees a day. Hence I cannot sell my winnows anything less than four rupees, some times it may require bargaining. As collecting and keeping the money at my hut may take away my sleep and some times my life I am paying them off before it reaches my hand. My Lord, I am sure that the money will certainly reach its destinations in time. Why should I loose my sleep or life for the sake of the money which does not belong to me?"

The learned king had no difficulty to understand this great philosophy and he realized the foolishness of people like him amassing huge wealth and spending sleepless nights trying to preserve it.