Why was the small bundle Kashiram carried so important to him, and what role did it play in his encounter with the thieves?

The small bundle was incredibly dear to Kashiram not because it contained treasure, as the thieves mistakenly believed, but because it held powdered sugar. As Chapter 0 details, a saint named Janakidas Baba had advised Kashiram to feed sugar to ants, and he was carrying out this practice. Because the bundle was so precious to him for this spiritual reason, he refused to let it go during the attack. This refusal to surrender the bundle escalated the conflict, leading him to fight back fiercely when the opportunity arose, ultimately shaping the entire confrontation with the thieves.