There are two people who deposited money with one individual. They both, together, at the same time, and in each other’s presence, gave money to one person to watch for them. One of them deposited a maneh, which is 100 zuz (a coin), and the second deposited matayim, 200 zuz. When they eventually came to collect the money, zeh omer sheli matayim, vezeh omer sheli matayim. The first person says, “The 200—I was the one who gave the 200.” The second person says, “No, I was the one who gave the 200.” The shomer here didn’t remember which one of them gave the 200 and which one of them gave the 100. One of them is definitely lying.
We say, noten lazeh maneh velazeh maneh. So what should the shomer do? What should the man who had the money deposited with him do? Give 100 to man number one and 100 to man number two. They both definitely gave at least 100. Vehash'ar yehei munach ad sheyavo Eliyahu (Elijah the Prophet). And then that remaining maneh, that extra 100 that he never gave out—what should he do with it? That’s the money they’re arguing about. He should leave it, put it on the side until Eliyahu HaNavi comes and tells us whose money it really is, or until one of the two people admits that they were lying and that it wasn’t theirs.
Amar (said) Rabbi Yose. Rabbi Yose disagrees. Im ken, ma hifsid haramai, says Rabbi Yose: You have no motivating factor to incentivize the one who’s trying to lie, the trickster, to admit that he was doing it. He’s getting the maneh back. He gave a maneh in, and he’s getting a maneh back. He gave 100, and he’s getting 100 back. So he’s getting all the money that he originally deposited. He doesn’t lose anything. So there’s no motivation for him to come and admit that he was lying.
So therefore, Ela ha'kol yehei munach ad sheyavo Eliyahu. Rabbi Yose says that all of the money—the 100 plus the 200 zuz—is put on the side until Eliyahu HaNavi comes, or until one of the owners comes and says, “By the way, I was lying. Please give me my 100. I didn’t really give 200.” So the fact that he doesn’t have any money back—that we don’t give him any of his money back—is motivating him to come and tell the truth. We want to make sure that the money goes to the right places. If he doesn’t come forward and tell the truth, then he’s going to lose even that amount that was rightfully his.