שואל: חדא – לא היו דברים מעולם. וחדא – אין, דשאלה מתה, ואידך – לא ידענא אי דשכירות מתה ודקיימא דשאלה, או דשאלה מתה ודקיימא דשכירות, דמתוך שאינו יכול לישבע – משלם.
i.e., the borrower said to the owner: With regard to one of the cows that you claim, this matter never occurred, as I never took that cow from you. And as for the cows that I did take that died, with regard to one of them, yes, I admit that it was a cow that was being borrowed that died; but the other cow that died, I do not know whether it was the cow that was being rented that died, and so the cow that is still alive is the one that was being borrowed, or whether the cow that was being borrowed died, and so the cow that is still alive is the one that was being rented. Because the bailee admits to part of the claim and denies another part of the claim, he is required to take an oath in order to be exempt from the rest of the claim. As he concedes that he does not know what happened, he is unable to take such an oath. The halakha is that since he is unable to take an oath, he must pay for all 3 cows.