Bava Metzia

For Raba said: [If A says to B,] 'You owe me a maneh,' to which he replies, 'I [certainly] owe you fifty [zuz], and as for the rest, I do not know,' since he cannot swear,  he must pay [all]. [On these lines,] the first clause [of our Mishnah] is conceivable when two, and the second, when three [cows are involved]. [Thus:] 'The first clause, when two [are involved].' A said to B, 'I gave you two cows, loaned for half a day and hired for half (or, [he says: they were] loaned for one day, and hired for another) and both died during the time they were borrowed.' To which B replied, 'One indeed did die then, but as for the other, I do not know whether it was during the time it was borrowed or the period of hire,' — since he cannot swear, he must pay. 'And the second clause, where three [cows are involved].' [Thus:] A said to B, 'I gave you three cows, two loaned and one hired, and the two loaned ones died.' To which the borrower replied, 'Tis true that one borrowed animal died; but as for the other, I do not know whether the borrowed one died and the one alive is the hired one, or the hired one died and the one alive is the borrowed;' since he cannot swear, he must pay. And according to Rami b. Hama, who maintained that the four bailees must partially deny and partially admit [liability],  the first clause is possible only when three, and the second when four [animals are involved]. 'The first clause when three [are involved]': A said to B, 'I gave you three cows, half a day on loan and half on hire, (or, [he says, I gave you them] one day, on loan and one on hire,) and the three died, all in the period when they were borrowed.' To which the borrower replied, 'As for one, the claim is entirely unfounded [I never received it]; the second did die in the period when it was borrowed; of the third, I do not know whether it died during the time it was borrowed or the period when it was hired.' Since he cannot swear, he must pay. 'And the second clause, where four [animals are involved].' A said to B, 'I gave you four cows, three loaned and one hired, and the three loaned ones died.' To which the borrower replied,