History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.712.2

v4.c63.712.2

if he purchases from one who could have no means of possessing the thing sold (such as a slave without the master's consent) or for a very inadequate price or at a very unusual hour (at midnight or the like) or from bad characters then he is to be punished as a thief (Yāj. II. 168, Viṣṇu Dh. S. V. 166, Nār. VII. 3, Manu VIII. 202, Bṛ. in SBE vol. 33 p. 336 verse 11). Such a sale is a fraudulent one. If the buyer purchases (through ignorance) in market overt from one who is not the owner, he incurs no blame (no punishment), but he may have to hand over the article to the real owner (Viṣṇu Dh. S. V 164-166).⁷⁹¹ The purchaser from one not the real owner can free himself by producing the vendor (called *mūla* in Manu VIII. 202, Bṛ. and Kāt.) and should not attempt to conceal from whom he came by the thing, otherwise he would be liable to be punished equally with the vendor as a thief (Nār. VII. 4). Bṛ. (SBE 33 p. 335 verse 3), Manu VIII. 201 and Yāj. II. 170 say that when the vendor has been produced by the vendee, then the latter is not to be proceeded against, but the vendor has to litigate with the real owner who has lost his property and when the vendor loses the suit he has to pay the price to the buyer and a fine to the king and the owner gets his property back.⁷⁹² If the vendor has gone abroad adequate time should be granted to the purchaser to produce him (Kāt. 615).