Study Bava Metzia folio 118A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
הגיעוך – אין שומעין לו. משקבל עליו אמר לו: הילך את יציאותיך, ואני אטול את שלי – אין שומעין לו.
They are yours, as I hereby declare them ownerless, and you can take them for yourself; the court does not listen to him, since he cannot force the other to acquire the stones. If after the owner of the garden voluntarily accepted ownership of the stones upon himself, the owner of the wall said to him: Here you are, take your expenditures for the removal of the stones, and I will take the stones that are mine; the court does not listen to him, as they had already been acquired by the owner of the garden.
השוכר את הפועל לעשות עמו בתבן ובקש, ואמר לו: תן לי שכרי. ואמר לו: טול מה שעשית בשכרך – אין שומעין לו. משקבל עליו ואמר לו: הילך שכרך ואני אטול את שלי – אין שומעין לו.
The Mishnah continues: In the case of one who hires a laborer to do work with him with hay or with straw, and after he finished the task, the laborer said to the employer: Give me my wages, and the employer said to him: Take what you have worked with as your wages, i.e., take some of the hay or straw as payment, the court does not listen to him. Although debts can be paid with any item of value, even hay or straw, the wages of a laborer must be paid in accordance with the initial agreement between the laborer and the employer. But if after the laborer accepted upon himself to keep the hay or straw as payment, the employer changed his mind and said to him: Here you are, take your wages and I will take what is mine; the court does not listen to him, since the laborer had already acquired the hay.