Karpoori Thakur was the Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time from 22 December 1970 to 2 June 1971.
People were impressed by his simplicity. Being a grassroots leader, people often used to come to his house. His family members also kept coming to his house.
Once a Gurudev from his school days from his native district Samastipur came to Patna to meet him. That day he stayed in the official residence of Karpoori Thakur.
When it came to arranging for Guruji to sleep at night, Karpoori Thakur told one of his relatives to free his bed for Master Saheb for the night.
The family vacated the bed but he was upset. They often had to face such situation because they were troubled by the visitors. However, the family vacated the bed but Karpoori Thakur came to know about this the next day.
Thakur then called his personal secretary and said that he should call the government officer and ask him to take back all the government posts and cots at our official residence.
From now on we will sleep on mats placed on the floor only. Senior journalist Surendra Kishore, who was his personal secretary at that time, has written that as per his orders officers were called and all the posts and cots were sent back. From then onwards Karpoori Thakur used to sleep on the floor only.
According to Surendra Kishore, when Karpoori Thakur stepped down from the post of Chief Minister, he did not want his family members to live with him in Patna. His income was limited.
He used to stay outside Patna on tour to Bihar for about 20 days in a month. Therefore, he had asked his personal secretary to tell his family members that everyone should go to their ancestral village Pitonjhiya.
The private secretary had to say it even though he did not want to. After this all the family members of Karpoori Thakur had gone to the village. His family profession in the village was that of barber.
His father Gokul Thakur continued his caste based occupation despite being the Chief Minister. Karpoori Thakur never stopped him from doing this work but encouraged him further.