Study Bava Kamma folio 115B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
אין לו אלא שכרו. ואם אמר: ״אציל את שלך, ואתה נותן לי דמי שלי״ – חייב ליתן לו.
the owner of the wine has the right to collect only his wage, i.e., compensation for the effort he put into salvaging the honey. He is not, however, entitled to compensation for the wine itself. But if the owner of the wine said: I will salvage your honey and you will pay me the value of my wine, the owner of the honey is obligated to pay him compensation for the wine.
שטף נחל חמורו וחמור חבירו, שלו יפה מנה ושל חבירו מאתים, והניח זה את שלו והציל את של חבירו – אין לו אלא שכרו. ואם אמר לו: ״אני אציל את שלך, ואתה נותן לי את שלי״ – חייב ליתן לו.
Similarly, if a river washed away his donkey and the donkey of another, and his donkey was worth 100 dinars and the donkey of the other was worth 200, and the individual with the less valuable donkey abandoned his donkey and instead salvaged the donkey of the other, he has the right to collect only his wage, i.e., compensation for the effort he put into salvaging his fellow’s donkey. But if he said to the owner of the more valuable donkey: I will salvage your donkey and you will pay me the monetary value of mine in exchange, the owner of the more valuable donkey is obligated to pay the rescuer compensation for his donkey.
גמ׳ ואמאי? לימא ליה: מהפקירא קא זכינא! מי לא תניא: הרי שהיה טעון כדי יין וכדי שמן, וראה שהן משתברות, לא יאמר: ״הרי זה תרומה ומעשר על פירות שיש לי בתוך ביתי״, ואם אמר – לא אמר כלום?
Talmud: And why does one who pours out wine have the right to collect only this wage? Let him say to the owner of the honey: I have acquired your honey from ownerless property. Isn’t it taught in a baraita: One who was laden with jugs of wine and jugs of oil and saw that they were breaking and their contents were leaking out should not say: This is hereby separated as teruma and tithe for the produce that I have in my house. And even if he said this, it is as though he did not say anything. The fact that one cannot separate produce that is about to be lost as teruma or tithe indicates that such property is considered ownerless.
Text data via Sefaria: William Davidson Edition - English and William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic, CC-BY-NC; edition provenance: Koren. Display terminology has been modernized for readability.