it would demolish the building and the builder is solvent, then the beam’s owner may claim only its value as reckoned on the day it was usurped. Should the usurper prefer to return the very beam and pull down his structure, he is free to do so, and the beam’s owner may not insist on receiving the value instead.

If the usurper turns the beam into doors, or seizes earth and fashions it into bricks or clay and then builds with it, the rightful owner is entitled solely to its value on the day of the usurpation, for the material has already been altered. ʿAbd al-Malik, however, held that the owner may still reclaim it, for splitting or cutting the beam does not amount to its total loss.

Whoever appropriates spun yarn and weaves it into cloth must pay the owner the value of the yarn; another view obliges him to replace it with yarn of equal quality. If he steals a hide and cuts it into sandals or boots, he is liable for its value.

Whoever takes wheat and sows it must return an equivalent amount of wheat; the crop itself belongs to him, not to the original owner. Whoever seizes an egg and incubates it until it hatches must provide an equivalent egg, and the chick is his. A second opinion says the chick belongs to the owner of the egg, while the usurper must pay the owner of the brooding hen a customary rental fee, if such a fee is recognized.

If he steals silver and mints it into dirhams, he must return the exact weight of silver he took. If he steals dirhams or dinars and the owner locates those very coins and wishes to reclaim them, yet the usurper refuses and offers equivalent coins instead, Ibn al-Qāsim allows him to do so, whereas Ashhab and others contend that the owner has the right to take his actual dirhams or dinars.

If a garment is stolen, cut, and then sewn, its owner is entitled only to its value on the day it was taken. If an open piece of land is usurped and built upon, either party may remove the building—unless the landowner chooses to pay the usurper the value of the structure once dismantled and removed, and the value of any trees he planted—in which case the usurper has no claim concerning what is not