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5 ‎[1] It is forbidden to buy from a thief anything he has stolen; it is a grave sin, since one encourages criminals thereby, inducing a thief to commit other thefts. If he finds no customer, he will not steal. Relative to this it is written : "The partner of a thief is his own enemy" (Proverbs 29:24). ‎[2] If a man stole an object and sold it, while the owner did not give up hope of regaining it, and thereupon the thief was discovered and witnesses testified : "The article that this man sold he had stolen in our presence," then the object goes back to the owner who, for the good of the open market, must restore to the purchaser the price he paid the thief; and then the owner may bring the thief to trial. If, however, he was a notorious thief, the sages did not apply the rule of open market, and the owner does not have to pay the purchaser anything, but the purchaser may bring the thief to trial and exact from him the money he paid him. ‎[3] If the owner gave up hope of recovering the stolen article, no matter whether he first gave up hope and then the thief sold it or he gave up hope after the thief had sold it, the purchaser has acquired title to it by the owner's abandonment of hope, and the change of possession, and does not have to restore the stolen article itself to the owner, but should give him only its value if he bought it from a notorious thief. If the seller was not a notorious thief, the buyer does not have to give the owner anything, because of the open-market rule. ‎[4] If, during the trial between the purchaser and the owner, there are no witnesses to testify about the sum paid for the stolen article, the purchaser, holding a sacred object, states on oath the price he paid for it and then collects it from the owner. Anyone who receives payment after taking an oath does so on the authority of the sages; he swears with a sacred object held in his hand, as will be explained in the proper place. ‎[5] When the purchaser calls the thief to trial, saying: "I bought it for such-and-such a sum," while the thief says: "I sold it to you for less," the purchaser must take an oath, with a sacred object held in his hand, and then he collects from the thief. The thief cannot take an oath, since he is suspected of swearing falsely.
Version: Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, edited by Philip Birnbaum, New York, 1967
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