whatever remains in proportion to its price: if half of what was sold is still present, he reclaims it for half the price; if a third remains, then for a third of the price, or any other corresponding fraction—reckoned according to the value on the day of sale, not the day of bankruptcy. The creditors then share proportionally in whatever has perished. This right is his unless the creditors pay him the full value of the portion he is reclaiming and take the goods themselves because they desire them; in that case the goods become theirs.

If the seller finds his merchandise diminished, whether in its physical substance or in its market value, and wishes to take it back, he may do so and has the stronger claim—unless the creditors guarantee him its price because they hope to profit from it, in which case they have the prior right. The same applies when the owner finds the goods with the bankrupt enhanced in substance or in market value and the creditors oppose him: they have the stronger claim provided they give him its full price, hoping for additional gain. Should they not guarantee its price, he may, if he wishes, take it together with its increase, and he has the superior claim, for he has recovered the very article itself.

If the seller has already received part of the price of his goods and the buyer has disposed of some of them, yet the seller discovers what remains, he may take whatever he finds in proportion to its price. Should the creditors wish to take that share of the goods for the part of the sale price that corresponds to it, they may. If they refuse and hand the goods over to him, he must return to them the portion of what he had already collected that corresponds to it, and he then ranks with them for the balance of the bankrupt’s estate.

For example: a man sells two slaves for twenty dinars, collects ten dinars of the price, the purchaser sells one of them while keeping the other, and then becomes bankrupt. If the seller wishes to reclaim the remaining slave, he must return five of the ten dinars he had received, take the slave, and then share with the creditors in the five dinars he returned.

This ruling, in the view of Malik and his associates, applies solely to a bankrupt who is still alive. As for the person who dies while his debts equal or exceed the whole of his estate, any of his creditors who finds a complete item of his property