High families fall and become low through the absence of sacrifices, impure marriages, the abandonment of the Vedas, and insults offered to brahmanas. Noble families also disintegrate and become low because their members disregard brahmanas or speak ill of them, or because of the unlawful appropriation, O Bharata, of what has been entrusted to them by others. Those families that possess members, wealth, and cattle are not truly considered families if they lack good manners and conduct, while families that lack wealth but are distinguished by manners and good conduct are indeed so considered and win great reputation. Therefore good manners and good conduct should be carefully preserved, since wealth comes and goes. It is not the one who lacks wealth who is truly in want, but the one who lacks manners and conduct who is truly in want. Those families that abound in cows and other cattle, as well as in the fruits of the field, are not in fact worthy of respect and fame if they lack manners and conduct.