When is a cow sacred?

I'm walking through Arambol village with my new yoga mat under my arm when I see a large cow approach a produce stand. With no hesitation, it plucks an apple from the middle of a huge pyramid of fruit with its fuzzy cow lips. More apples tumble to the ground as the cow noisily crunches down its stolen goods and leans in for more.

Normally, I would try to save the apples, but this is India and I'm not sure about the rules. In some places cows are sacred, and I don't want to go to jail for swatting someone's deity with a yoga mat. Then again, I think, Goa is largely a Christian state, so cows are probably just livestock here. But Jesus would have probably shared his apples with a cow, so...

I am shaken out of this dubious theological debate by the sound of a woman's angry voice. She's sitting in a chair across the street shouting at the cow, who completely ignores her while decimating her streetside display.

Then she turns and fixes me with a stare that can only mean, "You dumb foreigner. Why are you letting that cow eat all my apples? Do something!"

I swing my yoga mat at the cow's yearning lips and it lazily saunters away. I, on the other hand, move away at lightning speed, just in case the Hindu deities are watching.