This is a very short story about a king called Vikramáditya. One day he was travelling to a distant land by palanquin. When the palanquin bearers became tired he instructed them to take the palanquin off their shoulders and put it on the ground. Then the king asked in Sanskrit, “Skandhaḿ vádhati?” – “Are your shoulders hurting?” The Sanskrit root verb bádh should be used in the átmanepadii form and not the parasmaepadii form. Bádhate is the correct verbal form, not bádhati. King Vikramáditya made a mistake by using the parasmaepadii form. The other mistake he made was to incorrectly pronounce bádhati as vádhati.

It is also mentioned in the story that the palanquin bearers said to the king, “Skandhaḿ bádhatena rájan yathá vádhati bádhate” – “Oh, king, your pronunciation of bádhate hurts much more than our aching shoulders.”