to notify its owner immediately or return it to him immediately, because the depositor did not entrust it to the heirs. The heirs have found property belonging to someone else, without having been entrusted with it; therefore, they must notify him or return it to him.

“If one of the two depositors requests his share of divisible measured or weighed goods, he may take it. The depositary, the muḍārib, the pledgee, and the lessee may demand [compensation] from one who unlawfully appropriates the property itself …”

His statement, “If one of the two depositors requests”: al-mūdiʿayn may also be read as al-mūdiʿīn. A parallel occurs in the hadith: “Whoever relates from me a hadith which he thinks is a lie is one of the two liars—or, one of the liars.” (1) Thus, both the plural and the dual are permissible here.

His statement, “his share of divisible measured or weighed goods, he may take it”: An example of measured goods is one hundred sāʿs of wheat in a sack, jointly owned by two people, which they deposited with Zayd. After some time, one of them comes and says: “We deposited with you one hundred sāʿs of wheat, and I want my share of it.” He knows that his share is one-half, one-third, or one-quarter. The depositary must therefore give him his share. If both parties agree that these one hundred sāʿs are jointly theirs in equal halves, then he gives him his half. They justified this on the grounds that it causes no harm to his absent partner, who has not made a claim.

It was also said that, since both of them deposited it with him together, he is not required to hand anything over to either partner. The reason is that the partner requesting his share may possibly have sold it to his partner. Moreover, if he takes his full share, the other’s share may diminish, because when something is measured out repeatedly, it decreases. Hence they say: “Everything you transfer repeatedly decreases, except speech.” This is true. For example, fill a small cup with water, then pour it into the second cup, then into the third.