The History of Shēr Shāh (Tārīkh-i Shērshāhī) 4.3.2

4.3.2

For the protection of the roads from thieves and highway robbers, he made regulations as follows: He strictly impressed on his 'ámils and governors, that if a theft or robbery occurred within their limits, and the perpetrators were not discovered, then they should arrest the mukaddams of the surrounding villages, and compel them to make it good; but if the mukaddams produced the offenders, or pointed out their haunts, the mukaddams of the village where the offenders were sheltered were compelled to give to those of the village where the crime occurred the amount of restitution they had paid; the thieves and highway robbers themselves were punished with the penalties laid down in the holy law. And if murders should occur, and the murderers were not discovered, the 'ámils were enjoined to seize the mukaddams, as detailed above, and imprison them, and give them a period within which to declare the murderers. If they produced the murderer, or pointed out where he lived, they were to let the mukaddam go, and to put the murderer to death; but if the mukaddams of a village where the murder had occurred could not do this, they were themselves put to death; for it has been generally ascertained that theft and highway robberies can only take place by the connivance of these head-men.