the other creditors in respect of that debt.

If a man frees his slave on the condition that the slave pay a sum of money but the slave is declared bankrupt before payment, the master’s claim is not combined with the claims of the other creditors.

The creditors have no right to sell the slave who has been authorized to trade in order to satisfy their debts, nor may they stop the master from selling him and taking the price exclusively for himself. They may not lease him out so as to take his wages; they have no claim over his person, but only over his liability. Whenever he acquires property, they may pursue it for their debts, and whatever is found in his possession is divided among them under whichever master owns him—likewise if he is later emancipated.

If the slave incurs a debt without his master’s permission and is then declared bankrupt, the master may take whatever the slave has in hand, and the slave’s own confession is disregarded. Anyone who can prove, with evidence, a right to a specific item and finds it still intact may take it; otherwise he has no claim to the slave’s person. The admission of a bankrupt slave, whether in favor of his master or anyone else, is not accepted even if he had been authorized to trade. The master is entitled to annul any debt the slave incurred without his leave; if he does not do so, the liability remains with the slave and will be pursued whenever he is set free.

If a man plants a crop and disaster strikes it, whereupon he borrows money from one person and spends it on the crop but it is still insufficient, then borrows from a second person and spends likewise, and is subsequently declared bankrupt, the second lender has the first claim to the crop, after which the first lender has priority over whatever remains ahead of the other creditors.

Creditors may not interfere with anyone who has lawfully taken possession of an asset belonging to the bankrupt—such as a lessee of his riding-animal—until the lease term ends.

The fuller, the dyer, and the porter each has a prior right, like that of a pledgee, to whatever remains in his hands at the owner’s death or bankruptcy. The same applies to the laborer hired for a crop or for a date-orchard, who attends to its wells, props its branches, and channels its water; his status is that of a craftsman because of the effect his work has on the crop and the palms.

As for the shepherd and the broker, they are on a par with the other creditors regarding their wages, and they have no special claim.