Once in the Vijaya Nagar Empire, King Krishna Deva Raya's mother fell sick and was bedridden. The doctors declared that there was no chance for her survival.

One morning, she called out to her son and said, "My son!, Will you fulfil my last wish?".

King Krishna Deva Raya replied, " Tell me my dear mother, what do you want?" .

"Can you get me some mangoes to eat? I have a strong urge to eat some now", the royal mother said. The king immediately obliged and sent the royal guards far and wide to fetch the mangoes. But, since it was not a season for mangoes, the guards had a hard time finding some mangoes. By the time, they could find mangoes and return to the kingdom, the royal mother passed away.

King Krishna Deva Raya was extremely dejected that he could not fufill his mother's last wish. As a consolation, he arranged for a ceremony where he planned to give away mangoes made of gold to the brahmins. The word soon spread that the king was planning to give away golden mangoes for his mother's death ceremony. On the day of the ceremony, the brahmins turned up in large numbers. They were served sumptuos meal and finally each one was given a golden mango. The numbers were so large that Tenali Rama sensed that the brahmins were there more out of greed for the golden mangoes rather than for the genuinity of it.

He came up with an idea to teach the brahmins a lesson. He soon announced to the brahmins that his mother too died with her last wish unfulfilled. He requested the brahmins to grace his mother's death ceremony so that he could give away his mother's last wish to the esteemed brahmins and in turn help his mother's soul rest in peace. The greedy brahmins gathered in large numbers at tenali Rama' s house. They all had a sumptuous meal and eagerly wondered what tenali Rama's mother's last wish was. They hoped it was something like the golden mangoes.

After sometime they noticed tenali Rama heating up an iron rod. They enquired what he was doing. For which, tenali Rama replied that, "Respected Sirs! My mother's last wish was to be given a shot in the leg with a hot iron rod. Please accept this and help my mother's soul rest in peace". Saying this, tenali Rama charged towards the brahmins with the hot iron rod. The brahmins were petrified. They immediately begged Rama to forgive them and returned all the gold mangoes that they had collected at the King's palace and ran for their lives.