Ketubot 89A

גובה כתובתה.

she collects payment of her marriage contract, and he cannot claim that he already paid it.

כתובה ואין עמה גט, היא אומרת: אבד גיטי. והוא אומר: אבד שוברי. וכן בעל חוב שהוציא שטר חוב ואין עמו פרוזבול ⁠— הרי אלו לא יפרעו.

If she produced a marriage contract, and it was unaccompanied by a bill of divorce, and she says: My bill of divorce was lost, and he says: Just as your bill of divorce was lost, so too my receipt for the payment of your marriage contract was lost; and likewise, in a case of a creditor who produced a promissory note after the Sabbatical Year, unaccompanied by a document that prevents the Sabbatical Year from forgiving an outstanding debt [prosbol], and demanded payment of the debt, these debts may not be collected.

רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר: מן הסכנה ואילך ⁠— אשה גובה כתובתה שלא בגט, ובעל חוב גובה שלא בפרוזבול.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: From the time of danger and onward, after the ruling authorities banned the performance of mitzvot, people would destroy a bill of divorce or a prosbol immediately after they were signed, a woman collects payment of her marriage contract without a bill of divorce, and a creditor collects debts owed to him without a prosbol. The assumption is that due to the circumstances these documents were written but were not preserved.

גמ׳ שמע מינה כותבין שובר. דאי אין כותבין שובר, ליחוש דלמא מפקא לה לכתובתה, וגביא בה.

Talmud: Conclude from the Mishnah that when one repays a debt, the creditor writes a receipt and gives it to the debtor as proof of payment, as, if one does not write a receipt, then in the case in the Mishnah where she receives payment of her marriage contract by producing her bill of divorce, let us be concerned lest she produce her marriage contract in a different court and collect payment with it a second time. In the absence of a receipt, the husband cannot prove that the debt was paid.