Study Meilah folio 21B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
והלך והביא לו בשלשה חלוק ובשלשה טלית – שניהם מעלו. רבי יהודה אומר: בעל הבית לא מעל, שהוא אומר לו: חלוק גדול הייתי מבקש, והבאת לי קטן ורע.
and the agent went and brought him a robe with 3 sela and a cloak with 3 sela, both of them are liable for misuse. The homeowner is liable because his agency was performed with the purchase of the robe for 3 sela, and the agent is liable because he deviated from the homeowner’s instructions by purchasing the cloak. R' Yehuda says: The homeowner is not liable for misuse, as he can say to the agent: I was seeking a large robe worth a gold dinar and you brought me a small, inferior robe worth 3 sela, i.e., 12 silver dinars.
Talmud: The Talmud notes: One can learn from the Mishnah the resolution to an unresolved dilemma in tractate Ketubot (98b), that in a case of one who said to his agent: Go and sell on my behalf a kor of land, and he went and sold for him a half-kor, the purchaser acquires the half-kor of land that he purchased. Although the agent did not fulfill his agency entirely, the part that he did perform is valid.
אמרי: הכא היכי דמי – כגון דאייתי ליה שוה שש בשלש.
Some rabbis say that one cannot infer this resolution from the Mishnah. What are the circumstances of the Mishnah here? It is referring a case where the agent brought him a robe worth 6 sela, i.e., the value of the gold dinar that the homeowner gave him, which he acquired for 3 sela. If so, the homeowner received exactly what he wanted and the agent did not deviate from the agency, except that he also purchased a cloak without being instructed to do so. This is dissimilar to the case of an agent who sells a half-kor of land.