Baba Kama 10:2-3

Baba Kama 10:2

If a tax collector confiscated someone’s donkey and gave him a different donkey, or if thieves stole someone’s clothes and gave him other clothes, the victim may keep what he was given because the original owner has surely despaired of its return. If a person salvages some object from a river, from enemy troops or from thieves, if the original owner despaired of its return, the finder may keep it. The same is true if a swarm of bees left their hive for another person’s property: if the original owner despaired of their return, the second person may keep them. Rabbi Yochanan ben Broka said that a woman or a child can report on the bees’ location so that their owner can retrieve them from the second person’s property. If he causes damage in the attempt, he must pay for it but he doesn’t have license to break off a branch with the intention to pay for it. Rabbi Yishmael the son of Rabbi Yochanan ben Broka said that he may in fact break off a branch and then pay for it.

Baba Kama 10:3

If a person recognizes his own utensils or books in the possession of another person (who says that he bought them) and word of the robbery had gotten around, the buyer must swear how much he paid for the item and the original owner reimburses him for the return of the property. If word of the robbery has not spread, the original owner cannot reclaim the property because it’s always possible that he actually sold the object to the vendor who later resold it to the one who now has it.