The chief said: 'Were not those beans also left over and therefore unclean?' 'No,' he replied; 'for I should not have lived, if I had not eaten them, but the drinking of water would be mere pleasure.'

In plain words: The chief asks why the leftover beans were acceptable if the water was not. Ushasti explains that he would have died without the beans, but there was other water to drink, so taking this water would only be for comfort.