The second thief at Brindavan! Once a stray thief came to Brindavan. Seeing the prosperity all around, he decided to steal valuables from the various houses of Gopis. At midnight,he sneaked into the houses of Gopis one after another to raid

their cupboards and vaults. Practically, in every Gopi’s house, he found a very safely kept cloth bundle tightly tucked with a rope at the deepest niche of the vaults. ‘Ah! These must be the most precious diamonds and jewels of the Gopis! Let me pick only these bundles and not

waste time on other sundries!’ — thinking so, the thief picked up those bundles and ran away to the nearby forest before dawn.

After dawn, sitting comfortably on a tree branch, the thief started inspecting his booty. He picked up one bundle, untied it carefully. Once the outer

cloth sheath was removed, there was yet another bundle inside. Surprised, he untied it and noticed yet another bundle inside. After uncovering several layers like this, finally what he found was a small piece of peacock feather inside.

The thief took another bundle and there

were bundles one-inside-another; finally what he got was a small piece of broken flute. The thief got exasperated!

Impatiently, the thief went through the procedure on all the rest of the bundles and what he ended up were — a piece of yellow silk cloth, a broken piece of a

bracelet, a small conch, a piece of broken mud pot etc — all worthless items! The thief was frustrated as well as surprised.

Why on earth these Gopis kept such worthless items so safely tucked in their vaults? What makes them so valuable to them? At the risk of even getting

a punishment for stealing,the thief was overwhelmed with curiosity to know the truth.

He took all the items with him and went to Brindavan again.

As he entered into the street,he noticed that several Gopis were standing in groups and loudly talking about robbery that had taken

place at their houses. Their faces looked forlorn on account of the “losses” they had incurred.

He went straight to one such group of ladies. Seeing a stranger barging in, the Gopis gathered around him with curiosity.

“Ladies! Please excuse me, but I was the thief who came to

your houses last night to steal. I took away from your vaults what you had kept most safely tied and tucked up thinking that they must be the costliest gems and jewels you had. But what a disappointment for me! Please let me know, ladies! Why on earth you are keeping these

worthless pieces of pot, peacock feather and other nonsensical items so safely?” He threw the items that he had brought on the floor.

The Gopis’ faces instantly brightened up! They jumped up and vying with each other, rushed to pick up the items. “Ah! Thank God! My flute piece

is here!” “Wonderful! My peacock feather is back!” “Hey! Give me that piece of pot. It’s mine!” There were shouts of joy everywhere!

After collecting the items, the Gopis swarmed around the thief. One after the other, they started removing their bangles or nose rings and offered

to the thief as gifts! “Thank you, you are such a nice thief! Thanks for bringing back our invaluable belongings! Keep these golden gifts for you!”

The thief was flabbergasted! He was moved to tears seeing Gopi’s overwhelming generosity.

“May I know why these petty things are

so valuable to you?” he asked.

The Gopis said “These are the items belonging to our beloved Krishna. Our little Krishna left us years ago, never to come back. This peacock feather was worn by him. That piece of pot was one that he broke to steal butter from that Gopi’s house.

This yellow silk cloth was what he was wearing on the day he stole butter from my house and when I tried to grab him, that little torn piece of cloth was what I could manage to get! Whenever we look at them, each of these pieces brings us the overwhelming of joy of the days

we had spent in the company of Krishna! It’s these precious mementos that give some joy to us amidst our life filled with the sorrow of separation from our beloved Krishna”

The thief was moved to tears seeing the unearthly love the Gopis had on Krishna and their overwhelming generosity in gifting him with golden ornaments. His heart melted. A life of stealing was no longer attractive to him. He was possessed by a desire to know about Krishna and

see Him. When he inquired the Gopis where Krishna was,they told him that he was the prince of Mathura.

The thief left for Mathura and reached the palace.He sought an appointment with Lord Krishna and prostrated before him when he met the lord.The thief told his story to Krishna.

Krishna blessed the thief and said with a smile,“One thief is enough for Brindavan!”

The thief was very curious to know why Krishna resorted to stealing butter at Gopi’s homes when He lived there.

Krishna said,“The gopis earned their livelihood by selling butter, curd and milk.

Some of them are poor and they could not afford to feed their cowherd boys with milk and butter generously at home. When I went for grazing the cows along with other cowherd boys of Vrindavan, I noticed their hunger. I wanted to feed them. Gopis know that I love butter very much

and they always nurtured a desire to give me butter, but elders in the house would not allow it. Then I started sneaking into one or two Gopis’ houses to steal butter and share it with the hungry cowherd boys. Soon, It became the desire of many Gopis that I should visit their

houses for stealing butter and they intentionally left some butter at home for this purpose. Even though they were out to sell their milk butter and curd, their minds were constantly thinking of me: ‘Will Krishna come to my house and take away the butter?’Thus by stealing butter,

I accomplished two things: One, feeding the poor and hungry cowherd boys and two, making Gopis constantly think of me and meditate on me. Since I made the gopis’ minds always throng after me, I am called ‘Chittachora’—The stealer of the mind’.

Thus by throwing a single stone, I could get two mangoes!”

Hare Krishna