In Ex. 22: 1–15, 25–28, and 23: 4, 5, we have the earliest instalment of statutes on this point. The staple penalty for theft was restitution, yet varying widely in amount to meet the peculiarities of the case. In pastoral life cattle were specially exposed; therefore the law ordained that if the thief had killed the animal or sold it, he must restore――of oxen five for one; of sheep, four. But if the animal was found alive in his hand, the restitution was only double――two for one. The law made the charitable supposition that the thief might yet repent and bring back the stolen property, and purposely favored this result. On the other hand the selling or destruction of the animal would indicate a fixed purpose to have the avails of it, and also to render detection more difficult――both of which purposes the law punished sharply.――――It may well be noted that restitution was a telling, stinging penalty, touching the sensibilities of the thief in a very tender point. The indolent or unprincipled man who thought to live upon his neighbor’s toil, would find stealing very unprofitable. The law had the more grip in those times because if a man tried to put his property out of his hands to evade the demand for restitution, or were in fact too poor to restore four or five fold, there was always the last resort――the law could take him for a slave (“servant”) and make him _work it out_.――――This was one of the incidental benefits of a hard system: it could be applied so as to make the penalties for theft very effectually stringent. The law punished trespass upon another’s property and want of care for its due protection――on which points, subsequent, statutes reaffirm and expand what we first find in Ex. 22. (See Deut. 22: 1–4.) * * * * * While the law was vigorous, not to say severe, against criminal theft, it was yet _exceedingly lenient towards the unfortunate and innocent poor_, _e. g._, (1.) It gave permission to eat another’s property for the supply of present want. The specifications are――The grapes of thy neighbor’s vineyard; and his standing corn. Thou mayest eat grapes, but not put one in thy vessel; mayest pluck the heads of grain in thy hand, but never move thy sickle against thy neighbor’s grain (Deut. 23: 24, 25).