כשברח. וטעמא דברח, הא לא ברח – קנסינן למוכר. ונקנסיה ללוקח! לאו עכברא גנב אלא חורא גנב.
The case here is where the seller fled with the money, and there is no way of voiding the sale and returning the money to the purchaser. The Talmud comments: And the reason is that he fled, but had he not fled, we would penalize the seller by requiring him to return the money. The Talmud asks: And let us penalize the buyer and require him to take an equivalent sum of money to Jerusalem. The Talmud answers: It is not the mouse that steals, but the hole that steals. In other words, a mouse cannot steal an item unless he has a hole in which to hide it. Here too, the money would not have been desacralized without the help of the seller.
ואי לא עכברא, חורא מאי קעביד? מסתברא, כל היכא דאיכא איסורא – התם קנסינן.
The Talmud questions this logic: But if not for the mouse, what has the hole done? Since they both are integral to the prohibited act, each of them is deserving of a penalty. The Talmud answers: It stands to reason that anywhere that the forbidden item is, i.e., anywhere that the money is, and in this case it is with the seller, there we should penalize.
מתני׳ המקדש בערלה, בכלאי הכרם, בשור הנסקל, ובעגלה ערופה, בצפורי מצורע, ובשער נזיר, ופטר חמור, ובשר בחלב, וחולין שנשחטו בעזרה – אינה מקודשת. מכרן וקידש בדמיהן – מקודשת.
Mishnah: With regard to one who betroths a woman with orla, i.e., fruit grown during a tree’s first 3 years, or with diverse kinds in a vineyard, i.e., grain and grapes planted together, or with an ox that is sentenced to be stoned, or with a heifer whose neck is broken, or with the metzora’s birds which are designated for his offering, or with a nazirite’s hair, or with a firstborn donkey, or with meat cooked in milk, or with non-sacred animals that were slaughtered in the Temple courtyard, if he betroths her with any of these items, the woman is not betrothed, since it is prohibited to derive benefit from any of these items. By contrast, if one sold them and betrothed a woman with the money received from their sale, she is betrothed, as in these cases one may derive benefit from the money he receives in exchange for the forbidden item.