Section
If the prize-donor says to ten people, “Whoever among you comes in first shall have ten,” the arrangement is valid. If they all finish at the same moment (1), they get nothing, because the condition that entitles a single competitor to the prize has not been met. If one of them outstrips the rest, he takes the ten, for the condition is fulfilled in him.

If two contestants arrive first, the ten belong to the two of them. If nine finish ahead and one lags behind, the ten go to the nine, because the condition has been realized in them and the prize is therefore divided among them—just as when someone says, “Whoever brings back my runaway slave shall have such-and-such,” and nine people return him.

A second view holds that each of the winners receives ten, for every single one of them is a winner and therefore deserves the full prize. This parallels the wording, “Whoever returns (2) one of my slaves shall have ten,” and each person returns a slave; it differs from the case where he says, “Whoever returns my slave shall have ten,” and nine men bring him back, because in that instance no individual returned him on his own—the recovery was accomplished collectively by the nine.

A comparable example is when someone says, “Whoever kills an enemy combatant shall have his spoils.” If each person kills a separate man, he takes the full spoils of the one he killed; but if a group together kill one man, they share a single set of spoils.