We listed all the different Shomrim (guardians) and their responsibilities in the last Mishnah. Now we’ll talk about the different situations in which a Shomer (guardian) will swear falsely and be obligated to bring the Asham offering (guilt offering) along with the one-fifth penalty. We’ll start by talking about the Shomer Chinam (unpaid guardian). Like we said in the last Mishnah, once the Shomer Chinam swears that he didn’t do anything negligent, he frees himself from all responsibility. So that would mean any false oath on his part that wasn’t about negligence. For example, as we’ll get into, if he claimed that the animal he was watching was stolen, but in reality it just died on the spot. He lied there, but his lie didn’t get him out of having to pay anything. The Shomer Chinam is not responsible no matter what, unless he was negligent. Therefore, what we’re going to say in this Mishnah is that even if he lies, he’s patur; he’s not obligated to pay the one-fifth penalty or bring the Korban Asham.
The Mishnah says: If a person says to a Shomer Chinam, an unpaid Shomer, “Where’s the ox that I gave you to watch?” and the Shomer tells him, “It died naturally,” but in reality the ox was broken—what we mean there is that the ox was no longer with him—or it was stolen by thieves, captured, or lost. That is Nishbar (broken).
Or if the Shomer said, “My ox was broken, killed by a wild animal”: Vehu shemet, o nishbah, o nignav, o avad. It really died naturally, or it was captured, or it was stolen, or it was lost.
Or if the Shomer said, “Nishbah, the ox was captured by somebody”: Vehu shemet, o nishbar, o nignav, o avad. But in reality, it died naturally, or it was killed, or it was stolen, or it was lost.
Nignav, or the Shomer said that the ox was stolen: Vehu shemet, o nishbar, o nishbah, o avad. But in reality, it died naturally, or it was broken, or it was captured, or it was lost.
Or lastly, avad. The Shomer said it was lost: Vehu shemet, o nishbar, o nishbah, o nignav. But really what happened was that it died naturally, was broken, was captured, or was stolen.
So, in all of these cases, if the owner of the ox told the Shomer, “I’m putting an oath on you about your claim to see if it’s true,” and the Shomer answered, “Amen (so be it),” then he swore. That Amen is enough to be considered an oath. But later on, he admitted that he lied. So we ask: Is he obligated to bring the Asham offering along with the one-fifth penalty? The Mishnah says that he is not obligated to bring the offering or pay the penalty, even though he swore falsely.
A Shomer Chinam would not have to pay for the ox, even if he told the truth in all of these cases. So the lie he told didn’t really affect anything. It didn’t free him from having to pay anything. Therefore, we’re going to say that even though he lied, there’s no requirement for him to bring the Korban Asham (guilt offering) or pay the extra fifth.