Muchukunda and the Meaning of Rest

The story belongs to the Krishna cycle rather than to the Mahabharat's war narrative — it is told in the Harivamsa and the Puranas. Muchukunda, a king who had fought for the gods until he was exhausted, asks for sleep as his reward, with the condition that whoever wakes him is burnt to ash. Krishna later leads a pursuing enemy into that cave, and lets the boon do the rest.

It is usually read as a story about a favour granted exactly as asked. Rest, in it, is not idleness but the thing a person may legitimately want after enough has been asked of them — and it is defended fiercely.