Nowadays proposing high dowry payments has become widely common in Iranian society and certain other societies in order to give more validity to marriage, since the common people believe that if the dowry payment is higher, the marriage bond would be stronger. Irrespective of the morally negative aspects of this customary practice, proposing high dowry payments may lead to legal repercussions, as well. The juridical situation of this type of dowry payment is the topic dealt with in this article. The research hypothesis is that high dowry payment is not in itself a cause for its invalidity; but if the dowry proposed is higher than what the man can afford, so as the woman knows at marriage that he would not be practically able to pay it off, she would not have the right to have him imprisoned. In this research the lawmaker is suggested to consider as a proviso a ceiling for the implementation of article 1085 of the civil law in regard to dowry payments.