1014 – ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated: “A young boy belonging to some poor people cut off the ear of a boy belonging to some wealthy people. They brought the matter to the Prophet ﷺ, but he awarded them nothing.” Reported by Aḥmad and the three compilers with a sound chain of transmission⦗1⦘.

Hadith status
This report is authentic.
The author states: “It was narrated by Aḥmad and the three with an authentic chain.”
Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī says in al-Muḥarrar: “Its transmitters are reliable; they are the narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs.” Ibn Ḥajar judged it ḥasan in Fatḥ al-Bārī, and al-Mundhirī voiced no objection to it.

Points derived from the hadith
1 – The soundest way to understand the report is that the offending boy was still a minor, below the age of puberty.
2 – Linguistically, al-ghulām refers to a son who has not yet reached puberty; the Lawgiver’s phrase, “O young boy, mention the name of Allah,” employs the word in this sense. Since the offender here was under age, no qiṣāṣ (legal retaliation) is taken from him, for the intentional act of a child is treated as accidental by unanimous agreement of the scholars.
3 – No diyah (blood money) was levied on his ʿāqila, because they were poor; diyah is taken from the ʿāqila only when they are well-off. This is the most fitting interpretation of the hadith and suits its wording. It is likely that the Prophet ﷺ paid the diyah on his behalf from the Bayt al-Māl (public treasury).
4 – Shaykh al-Islām said: “There is no qiṣāṣ between minors and the insane, nor upon anyone whose reason has departed for an excusable cause; in such cases no diyah is required.”
And al-Muwaffaq said: “There is no difference of opinion among the scholars that no qiṣāṣ is imposed on a minor,