For the source text click/tap here: Bava Kamma 70
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A new Mishnah states:If according to two witnesses he stole (an ox or a sheep) and according to them, or according to another two, he slaughtered or sold it, he pays the fourfold or fivefold payments. If a person stole and sold it on Shabbos; or he stole and sold it for idolatry; or he stole and slaughtered it on Yom Kippur; or he stole from his father and slaughtered or sold it and his father later died; or he stole and slaughtered it and later consecrated it, he pays the fourfold or fivefold payments.
The Gemora asks from a braisa which stated that he is exempt from paying in this case!?
Rami bar Chamah answers: He is exempt in a case where the buyer said to the thief, “Cut a fig off of my tree, and I will acquire that which you have stolen.” [He is liable for death at the same time that he sold it; accordingly, he would be exempt from paying based upon the rule of kim leih bid’rabbah minei - whenever someone is deserving of two punishments, he receives the one which is more severe.]
Our Daf (and Bava Batra (56b) probes the ability of beit din to combine fragmented testimony. Often a halakha or verdict of beit din is a product of multiple fragments of information.
We explore further items like when stealing might be permitted and Klayman’s analysis of Punitive Damages.