Bava Batra 46B

״ראה״ תניא.

as it is taught in the earlier baraita that the owner has a valid claim only when he, and witnesses, saw his cloak in the possession of the launderer and can definitively identify it. He cannot state a claim based on the mere possibility that it is his. This validates the claim of the craftsmen of Pumbedita.

אמר רב אשי: ואי חכים, משוי ליה ״ראה״⁠ – דאמר ליה: אמאי תפיסת ליה, לאו משום דאית לך גבאי? השתא אפקינהו ושימינהו ⁠– שקול את דידך, ואשקול אנא דידי. אמר ליה רב אחא בריה דרב אויא לרב אשי, מצי אמר ליה: לא צריכנא לשומא דידך, כבר שמוה קמאי דקמך.

Rav Ashi said: And if the owner is clever, he will render the situation into one of his having seen his cloak, as the owner can say to the craftsman: Why are you holding it? Is it not due to the fact that there is money of yours with me, and you are using the cloak as a means of collecting the debt that I owe you? Now bring out my cloak before the appraisers and they will appraise its value, and then you take what is rightfully yours, and I will take what is rightfully mine. When the craftsman presents the cloak, the ruling will change, as the owner will have seen the cloak. Rav Aḥa, son of Rav Avya, said to Rav Ashi: If the craftsman is clever, he can say to the owner: I do not need your appraisal, as the earlier ones who preceded you already appraised it and determined that its value does not exceed that of your debt to me.

אריס אין לו חזקה. אמאי? עד האידנא פלגא, והשתא כולה! אמר רבי יוחנן: באריסי בתי אבות.

§ The Talmud discusses a ruling that it paraphrases from the Mishnah: A sharecropper does not have the ability to establish the presumption of ownership of property in his possession. Why not? Isn’t it so that until that time, while he was definitely working as a sharecropper, he consumed only half of the produce of the land, and now, for the past 3 years, he consumed all of its produce? He should be able to establish the presumption of ownership by consuming more produce than a sharecropper does. R' Yoḥanan says: The ruling of the Mishnah is stated with regard to family sharecroppers. This type of sharecropper, who works for a family for many years, gathers all of the produce into his property, and then returns the landowner’s share. Therefore, his collecting all of the produce into his property does not establish the presumption of ownership.