When Mrs. Baum returned, she took out a sum of money in the amount initially agreed upon.
"That's not enough," said Rachel. "We agreed on double pay."
"What I gave you is what we really agreed on," said Mrs. Baum.
"But once you agreed to pay double, that became our agreement," said Rachel hotly. "I only came to work with that understanding. You're cheating me!"
"If anything, you tried to cheat me," replied Mrs. Baum. "You made me pay more when I had no choice in the matter. I'm going to ask Rabbi Dayan about this."
Question: Am I obligated to pay for destroying a check that was made out to someone else?
Answer: The Gemara (Bava Metzia 98a-b) teaches that one who burns a loan document is liable for the value of the loan as garmi, even though the document itself is not of inherent value (C.M. 386:2). The Rosh explains that this is because he actively damaged his friend’s property and the loss is definite; additionally, the damage is done immediately. The same would seem to be true if you destroyed a check (Pischei Choshen, Nezikin 3:[50]). See full answer
Question: An institution held a raffle and commissioned people to sell tickets. After the winner of the prize was chosen, one of the sellers realized he had not submitted a booklet of ticket stubs sold to twenty people. The institution wants to refund the money to those twenty buyers.
May the institution choose to refund the money, or must they redo the raffle with all the tickets? What if the buyers agree to let the drawing of the raffle stand?
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