The rash Kshatriya of the border village
In a small Kshatriya village near the Shona river lived a young landholder of hot temper — quick to draw his sword, quicker to feel insulted. In a boundary quarrel one evening he struck a fellow villager, not realising until the man fell that the person was a Brahmin who had come only to speak reason between the parties. The Brahmin died at his feet. From that moment the mahapatak of brahma-hatya settled on his shoulders like a stone.
The village that turned away
No priest of the region would perform even the mrityu-samskara for the murdered Brahmin from the Kshatriya's hands, and none would accept his gifts of atonement. His fields were left unploughed; wells refused to draw water for him; children were forbidden to answer when he passed. Broken and half-mad with shame, he wandered until he came upon a saintly muni performing sandhya on a river bank, and fell at that muni's feet without daring to touch them.
The muni's prescription
The muni, without opening his eyes, said, 'Papa greater than yours has burned before. The Shravana Krishna Ekadashi that comes is Kamika. Fast the whole day; keep jagran with Vishnu naam; and at midnight offer upon the shalagram just one tulsi patra dipped in Ganga jal. Neither wealth nor mantra nor priest is needed — only that single leaf and your tears.' The Kshatriya bowed and made the sankalpa on the spot.
The purification
He observed the vrat with tears streaming down his face for the whole nirjala day and jagran night. At the appointed midnight he offered the single tulsi patra upon a small shalagram he had carried from his father's home. As Dwadashi dawned he felt the stone lift from his chest as if lifted by unseen hands. Signs appeared: dogs came to him again; wells drew clear water; and the eldest Brahmin of the region, having received a dream, walked to his door and embraced him. He spent his last years feeding Brahmins in the very village whose Brahmin he had killed, with Vishnu's naam ceaselessly on his tongue.
"A single tulsi patra offered on this Ekadashi upon a shalagram is declared by the shastra to equal all tirtha yatras and all yajnas combined. Purifies even brahma-hatya and other mahapatakas when done with genuine repentance."