For the source text click/tap here: Bava Metzia 40
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A new MISHNA states : In the case of one who deposits produce with another, and the bailee provides him with different produce in return, that bailee deducts from the produce that he returns an amount equal to the standard decrease of the produce.
The entire calculation of decay is according to the measure, and the entire calculation is according to the time elapsed.
Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Nuri said: And what do the mice care how much produce the bailee is safeguarding? Don’t they eat the same amount whether it is from much produce and whether it is from little produce?
We explore the history of rodents in antiquity , in contagion, in laboratory science and the curious case of the half flesh half earth rodent (Mishnah Hulling 9:) defended by the Tiferes Yisrael as late as the 19th century.