Why Does He Steal?

Gopal, small child of Yashoda Devi, so small. All the gopis and gopas, milk-men and milk-women, complain to Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda Devi, “You should be very careful about your child.”

“Why?”

“Your son is very naughty.”

“Naughty? How? My son is very good.”

“You see, when we sleep in the night we keep a lamp lighted so that no thief can enter. But your son, Kanaiya, with other cowherd boys in the mid-night enters our house and blows it by the wind of the mouth, extinguishes the lamp and steals all the yogurt, butter, etc.”

“What is this? If He desires anything, we can give. Why should He steal?”

Then Nanda Maharaj, very much astounded and asks, “Kanaiya! Have You done this?”

“No father.”

What do you say, Pappa? Daddy?

“I have not done this. They are speaking lies.”

Mother Yashoda, “Kanaiya! You had been visiting the houses of the milk-men and milk-women to steal?”

“No, they are speaking lies, they are telling lie.”

Actually Krishna was speaking truth because all the milk-women are preparing everything for the service of Krishna, yogurt, sweets, etc., butter everything. But when they approached Nanda Maharaj and Yashoda Devi, “We want to feed your child, please send Him.”

“No! I have got ten thousand cows. I am Nanda Maharaj, why will my son go to other houses to eat? No.” Yashoda Mata also refused.

Krishna is bhakta-vatsala, always subdued by the pure devotion of the devotee; how to fulfill their desire. Krishna Himself went, “Pappa, I want to take the food prepared by such and such gopi’s house. Can I go?”

“Oh, You have become greedy. You have got everything here. I cannot allow You to go.”

Then how to fulfill their desire?

“So, I am to become a thief to fulfill their desire. They are telling lie. They have prepared everything for Me. And I have gone there as a thief to fulfill their desire.”