The gopis had prayed in the Katyayani mantra: "Make the son of Nanda my husband". And so one day, as they bathe in the Yamuna with their garments left on the bank, Krishna quietly carries the clothes off and climbs up a tree with them. "Come out of the water and take them", he calls from above. The gopis are aghast: "What are you doing? We were bathing, and you have stolen all our clothes! You do not grow more pious with the years — you grow worse and worse!" It looks like a brazen prank. But this lila has a hidden meaning. There is a Vedic law: no woman may be seen unclothed by anyone but her husband. And what Krishna does is, by vraja-niti, by the rules of prema, a true wedding. As a groom kneels — "Will you marry me?" — so, taking away every garment, Krishna asks: "May I become your husband?" And when the gopis come out of the water one by one — that is their wedding "I do". From that day it is not the dharma of society that binds them, but prema-maryada, the law of love. The thief in the tree turned out to be the bridegroom.