Ch rudatta is a generous young man who, through his charitable contributions to unlucky friends and the general public welfare, has severely impoverished himself and his family. Though deserted by most of his friends and embarrassed by deteriorating living conditions, he has maintained his reputation in Ujjayini as an honest and upright man with a rare gift of wisdom and many important men continue to seek his counsel.
Though happily married and the recent father of a young son, Rohasena, Ch rudatta is enamored of Vasantasen , a courtesan of great wealth and reputation. At a chance encounter at the temple of K ma she returns his affection, though the matter is complicated when Vasantasen  finds herself pursued by Samsth naka, a half-mad brother-in-law of King P laka, and his retinue. When the men threaten violence, Vasantasen  flees, seeking safety with Ch rudatta. Their love blossoms following the clandestine meeting, and the courtesan entrusts her new lover with a casket of jewelry in an attempt to ensure a future meeting.
Her plan is thwarted, however, when a thief, Sarvilaka, enters Ch rudatta s home and steals the jewels in an elaborate scheme to buy the freedom of his lover, Madanik , who is Vasantasen s slave and confidant. The courtesan recognizes the jewelry, but she accepts the payment anyway and frees Madanik  to marry. She then attempts to contact Ch rudatta and inform him of the situation, but before she can make contact he panics and sends Vasantasen  a rare pearl necklace that had belonged to his wife, a gift in great excess of the value of the stolen jewelry. In recognition of this, Ch rudatta's friend, Maitreya, cautions the Brahmin against further association, fearing that Vasantasen  is, at worst, scheming to take from Ch rudatta the few possessions he still has and, at best, a good-intentioned bastion of bad luck and disaster.
Refusing to take this advice, Ch rudatta makes Vasantasen  his mistress and she eventually meets his young son. During the encounter, the boy is distressed because he has recently enjoyed playing with a friend's toy cart of solid gold and no longer wants his own clay cart that his nurse has made for him. Taking pity on him in his sadness, Vasantasen  fills his little clay cart with her own jewelry, heaping his humble toy with a mound of gold before departing to meet Ch rudatta in a park outside the city for a day s outing. There she enters a fine carriage, but soon discovers that she is in a gharry belonging to Samsth naka, who remains enraged by her previous affront and is madly jealous of the love and favor she shows to Ch rudatta. Unable to persuade his henchmen to kill her, Samsth naka sends his retinue away and proceeds to strangle Vasantasen  and hide her body beneath a pile of leaves. Still seeking vengeance, he promptly accuses Ch rudatta of the crime.
Though the Ch rudatta proclaims his innocence, his presence in the park along with his son's possession of Vasantasen 's jewels implicate the poverty-stricken man, and he is found guilty and condemned to death by King P laka. Unbeknownst to all, however, the body identified as Vasantasen s was actually another woman. Vasantasen  had been revived and befriended by a Buddhist monk who nursed her back to health in a nearby village.
Just as Ch rudatta faces execution, Vasantasen  appears and, seeing the excited crowd, intervenes in time to save him from execution and his wife from throwing herself onto the funeral pyre. Together the three declare themselves a family. Reaching the courts, Vasantasen  tells the story of her near death and, following her testimony, Samsth naka is arrested and the good Prince  ryaka deposes the wicked King P laka. His first acts as the newly declared sovereign is to restore Ch rudatta s fortune and give him an important position at court. Following this good will, Ch rudatta demonstrates in the final act his enduring virtue and charity, appealing to the King for pardon on behalf of Samsth naka who is subsequently declared free.
Output: With whom does Charudatta have an affair?