History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.20.3

v4.c63.20.3

if they caused unreasonable delay in handing back finished articles, they were to receive one-fourth less than the proper wages and were to be fined twice the amount of wages; similar provisions are made for loss of wages and fines for weavers who do not increase the weight of cloth (cotton, linen, silk or woollen) woven up to the usual standard: washermen were to wash clothes on wooden planks or smooth stones, but if they washed them elsewhere, they were to pay compensation for loss caused and a fine of 6 *paṇas*; they were to be fined twelve paṇas for the sale, pledge or hiring out of other's clothes; they were also to be fined for keeping clothes with them beyond the time ordinarily required; for washing the best garments, garments of middling quality and inferior garments the wages were respectively one paṇa, ½ and ¼; trustworthy persons and experts were to decide disputes about colour and wages; similar rules apply to tailors; goldsmiths, who without informing (government officers) purchased from unclean hands (i. e. from menial servants or slaves) without changing the form of the article or after changing the form, or purchased from a thief were to be fined respectively 12, 24 or 48 paṇas; for stealing one (gold) māṣaka (one-sixteenth of a suvarṇa) from off a suvarṇa, the gold-smith was to be fined two hundred paṇas and for stealing one māṣaka out of a silver *dharaṇa* there was a fine of twelve paṇas;