XIII. Sale Without Ownership
XIII. SALE WITHOUT OWNERSHIP.
1. 1 Immediately after deposits, sale by another person than the owner has been declared by Bhrigu; listen attentively, I will expound that subject thoroughly.
2. 2 An open deposit, a bailment for delivery (Anvâhita), a Nyâsa (sealed) deposit, stolen property, a pledge, or what has been borrowed for use: when any one of these articles has been sold in secret by a man, he is declared a person different from the owner (asvâmin).
3. 3 When the vendor has been produced and has been cast in the suit, (the judge) shall cause him to pay the price and a fine to the buyer and king respectively, and to restore the property to the owner.
4. 4 When the former owner comes forward and makes good his claim to the thing bought, the vendor shall be produced (by the purchaser); by doing so, the purchaser may clear himself.
5. 5 That greedy man who covets another man's property, without having any claim to it, shall be compelled to pay twice the value (of the property claimed) as a fine, if he is unable to prove his claim.
6. 6 When there is no evidence in a suit, the king shall consider the character of the parties and pass a decree himself, according to the equal, greater, or less (credibility of the parties).
7. 7 When a purchase has been made before an assembly of merchants, the king's officers being aware of it (also), but from a vendor whose habitation is unknown; or when the purchaser has deceased:
8. The owner may recover his own property by
paying half the price (tendered), the custom in that case being that one half of the value is lost to each of the two.
9. A purchase from an unknown (vendor) is one fault (in that case); want of care in keeping it is another; these two faults are viewed by the wise as legitimate grounds of loss to each party.
10. 10 When a man purchases (a commodity) at a fair price, and (the purchase) has been previously announced to the king, there is no wrong about it; but he who makes a fraudulent purchase is a thief.
11. That should be known as a fraudulent purchase which is made at an unreasonably low price, in the interior of a house, outside of the village, at night, in secret, or from a dishonest person.