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This chapter deals largely with the ugly fact that sometimes we live among thieves — and more broadly, asks what of other people we can hold on to and claim rights to, and what we can't.
A rundown of key points in the mishnayot:
- Mishnah 1 - 2: There are times when we know something has been stolen (or is otherwise someone else's), but even so there is no obligation to return the property or pay restitution — because the legal claim of the owner has expired. For instance, if bandits made off with an object and the owner can be assumed to have relinquished hope of ever getting it back, the owner relinquishes ownership as a result as well — and if someone gets the object from the bandits, he has no obligation to return the object to the original owner.*
- Mishah 3: If someone sees his objects in someone else's possession — and the word on the street is that the object is stolen — the new owner must return the object. However, if he swears that he has purchased the object and has not stolen it, he is entitled to get his money back as well.
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Mishnah 4: This mishnah deals with a case of two merchants, one carrying honey and the other carrying wine, who crash into each other and break their barrels. The wine owner quickly pours out his wine to catch the (slower) falling honey in his barrel. He is entitled to the wages of tending to the honey, but — unless stipulated explicitly — not to the value of his lost wine, which he poured out on behalf of the honey-owner but of his own accord.
- Mishnah 5: If a thief steals land and, as a result the land is taken out of the theive's control — for instance, marauders stole the property from the thief — the thief must pay the owner the value of a replacement property. However, the thief has no such obligation if the land was taken from the thief by larger forces at play (for instance, a flash flood).
- Mishnah 6: A thief must return the object to its original protected status unless stipulated otherwise by the owner. Thus, if the thief stole the object in a settled area, he can't return the object in the open wilderness—where it is assumed to be less protected (perhaps by the watchful eye of neighbors).
- Mishnah 7: If someone confesses to a theft but is not sure if he's repaid restitution, he must pay the restitution now.
- Mishnah 8: A thief is liable for the safety of the stolen property until the owner is aware of the property's safe return.
- Mishnah 9: We may not take things from people who we have a good reason to assume may have stolen the objects. For instance, we don't take wool from shepherds, since we're worried they may have sheared their employers' sheep and taken the wool.
- Mishnah 10: In certain professional contexts, it's assumed that professionals can hold on to things that belong to their customers but pass to the artisan in the course of work. For instance, a laundromat may take spare lint from a customer's garment (which sounds obvious, but was far less obvious in the ancient world where materials were both sparse and reused).
*The concept of yeush — relinquishing ownership as a result of losing hope of seeing an object again — is a crucial one when it comes to the laws of returning found objects. That's a key issue explored in the second chapter of our next masechta, Bava Metzia…another great reason to stay with Mishnah Yomit.
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