Thursday, May 07, 2009

Three Fellows Holding on

The Mishna had stated: Two people are holding on to a cloak. This one says that he found it, and the other says that he found it. This one says that it is all his, and the other claims that it is all his. This one should swear that he does not own less than half of the cloak, and the other should swear that he does not own less than half of the cloak, and they should then split the cloak.

If one says that the entire cloak is his, while the other one claims that only half of it is his, the first one should swear that he does own less than three quarters of the cloak, while the second one should swear that he does not own less than one quarter of the cloak. The first one then takes three quarters, while the second one takes one quarter.

They asked the Maharil Diskin when he was only a child: What would be the halachah if three people were holding onto the cloak? One of them said, “It is all mine,” and each of the other two said, “Half of it is mine.” We cannot say that the one who claimed that it is all his should receive half, and the other two should get a quarter each, for it would emerge that only the one who said that the entire cloak is his would be losing out because there is a third party in the case. Perhaps the halachah should be that we should give half to the one who claims that it is all his, for the other two are admitting that this half is his, and regarding the other half, it should be split in thirds between all of them, for they are all claiming on that half that it is completely theirs. This is also not correct, for the two that were claiming that half is theirs are not admitting that the other half belongs to the one person who claimed that it is all his, for although each one of them is admitting that it does not belong to them, perhaps it belongs in partnership to the other two?

He answered on the spot as follows: The one who claimed that the cloak is completely his receives half the cloak, plus a third of one of the remaining quarters. Each of the other two receives a third of one quarter and half of the remaining quarter. And he explained: Each one of the fellows who claimed that only half of the cloak is theirs is in essence admitting that the other half belongs to the other two – half to the one who said that it is completely his, and half to the other one who said that only half is his. It emerges that the fellow who said that it is completely his has an admission from each one of them that a quarter of the cloak is his. He therefore receives a quarter of the cloak. Each one of the fellows who are claiming that half the cloak is theirs is also admitting to the other fellow claiming a half that a quarter of the cloak is his. They each would be entitled to a quarter of the cloak except for the fact that the fellow claiming that the entire cloak is his is disputing their claim. Therefore, the two fellows claiming half the cloak is theirs each split a quarter with the one claiming that the entire cloak is his. On the last remaining quarter, all three of them are claiming that it is completely theirs. They therefore split that quarter in thirds.

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