Once upon a time in Dwaraka, Lord Krishna was ruling the kingdom with his 3 wives who were Rukmini, Jambavati and Sathyabama. Sathyabama was always jealous of Lord Krishna as he spent more time with the other two wives and so she constantly looked for a way to attract her husband’s attention.
One day, sage Narada came up to Sathyabama and told her that the entire town was gossiping about how Rukmini and Lord Krishna were always inseparable. Sathyabama was very jealous now and in her desperation, she asked sage Narada to suggest some solution for her, so that she too could be close to Lord Krishna, just like Rukmini.
Sage Narada smiled and said that he had an ideal plan for that. He told her that there was a ceremony happening in town tomorrow and during that time, she could offer Lord Krishna as a servant to him. Sathyabama looked aghast and shouted at sage Narada for suggesting such an idiotic idea. But sage Narada urged her to calmly listen to what he had to say fully. Sathyabama then agreed to remain silent. Sage Narada then explained his plan fully to Sathyabama.
The next day in the ceremony at Dwaraka, Sathyabama gives Lord Krishna to sage Narada as a servant and Lord Krishna himself is perplexed at this. Sathyabama then says that she will take back Lord Krishna by giving an equal amount of wealth in weight. Sage Narada agrees and makes Lord Krishna sit on one scale of a giant weighing balance placed nearby. Sathyabama then begins to place gold coins and other precious ornaments on the other scale in order to balance the weight, but the scale does not even move a little. It remains tilted on the side where Lord Krishna is seated. Sathyabama then orders her guards to bring all the wealth from her kingdom and they oblige. They arrive with trunks of wealth and Sathyabama places all of it on the scale, but still nothing happens. Secretly, Lord Krishna is smiling to himself as Sathyabama struggles to get the scales balanced.
Sathyabama then decides to take the help of Rukmini and so she approaches her. Rukmini agrees to balance the scales somehow and she follows Sathyabama to the ceremony. On the way, she secretly plucks a Tulasi leaf.
After reaching the ceremony, Sathyabama shows the balance to Rukmini. Rukmini smiled and taking the Tulasi leaf, she prays and places it on top of all the wealth that Sathyabama had placed. In an amazing turn of events, the balance leans away from Lord Krishna on the side of the Tulasi leaf! Everyone at the ceremony is amazed, including Sathyabama. Lord Krishna then tells Sathyabama to remove all the wealth from the balance and leave only the Tulasi leaf behind. She does the same and another shock awaits everyone as the single Tulasi leaf continues to outweigh Lord Krishna on the other side!
Lord Krishna then explains to Sathyabama that devotion matters more than materialistic wealth and that was the reason why a single Tulasi leaf placed by a devoted Rukmini managed to outweigh him, whereas all the combined wealth of Sathyabama could not. Sathyabama learnt her lesson and since then she stopped being jealous and instead increased her devotion towards Lord Krishna.