Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c8.120

c8.120

The depositary is punished if he misappropriates the deposited property or uses it in any other way than is expressly allowed and he is also to make good the deposited property if it is lost through his own fault. In the investigation of the question of debt particular importance is attached to the point whether the depositary kept the deposit apart from his own valuable articles and thus failed to bestow upon it equal care and in general whether he did not pay necessary attention to it; he is not guilty if the deposit is lost through fire, flood, theft or through (confiscation by) the king or generally through a vis major (*daiva*) or if he has timely warned the depositor of the threatening danger. The most sensible act is never to accept a deposit; yet however high religious merit may be gained by faithfully keeping a deposit, while on the other hand, its misappropriation is as great a sin as the murder of a near relative (Bṛh. 12, 6—8).