The Boatman Who Would Not Take Payment

A prince came down to a river and was told he could not get in the boat until his feet had been washed.

Two rivers, two men

There are actually two boatman stories at the start of the exile, and separating them makes both better.

In Valmiki's telling, when Rama, Sita and Lakshmana leave Ayodhya and reach the Ganga at Shringaverapura, they are met by Guha, king of the Nishadas, a forest people, outside the varna order of the court.

Guha is not a servant who appears and is thanked. He is Rama's friend, named as such, and the text describes their affection as being of one soul. He comes out with his kinsmen, brings food and every comfort he has, and offers all of it.

Rama declines the hospitality, he is under a vow of forest austerity and cannot accept the food or the bed, and Guha, unoffended, does the next thing: he takes the horses of the party into his own care, and then stands guard.

Lakshmana kept watch that night, unwilling to sleep while his brother lay on the ground. Guha stayed awake with him and told him he would not sleep at all, and set his own men around the sleeping prince.

In the morning he had the boat prepared and had them ferried across himself.