Then Vidagdha Sakalya asked him: 'How many gods are there, O Yagnavalkya?' He replied with this very Nivid: 'As many as are mentioned in the Nivid of the hymn of praise addressed to the Visvedevas, viz. three and three hundred, three and three thousand.' 'Yes,' he said, and asked again: 'How many gods are there really, O Yagnavalkya?' 'Thirty-three,' he said. 'Yes,' he said, and asked again: 'How many gods are there really, O Yagnavalkya?' 'Six,' he said. 'Yes,' he said, and asked again: 'How many gods are there really, O Yagnavalkya?' 'Three,' he said. 'Yes,' he said, and asked again: 'How many gods are there really, O Yagnavalkya?' 'Two,' he said. 'Yes,' he said, and asked again: 'How many gods are there really, O Yagnavalkya?' 'One and a half (adhyardha),' he said. 'Yes,' he said, and asked again: 'How many gods are there really, O Yagnavalkya?' 'One,' he said. 'Yes,' he said, and asked: 'Who are these three and three hundred, three and three thousand?'

In plain words: Next, the scholar Vidagdha Sakalya asks Yagnavalkya how many gods there are. Yagnavalkya first quotes a hymn: three hundred and three, plus three thousand and three. Each time Sakalya asks again, the number drops: thirty-three, six, three, two, one and a half, and finally one. Sakalya then asks who the thousands of gods are.