, so that, in point of fact, the penalty is three times the
value of the property, and this whether the robber be taken in the act
or not; for it would be absurd to treat a robber more lightly than one
who carries off property merely secretly.

1 This action is maintainable only where the robbery is attended with
wrongful intention; consequently, if a man by mistake thought that
property was his own, and, in his ignorance of law, forcibly carried it
off in the belief that it was lawful for an owner to take away, even by
force, a thing belonging to himself from a person in whose possession it
was, he cannot be held liable to this action; and similarly on principle
he would not in such a case be suable for theft. Lest, however, robbers,
under the cloak of such a plea, should discover a method of gratifying
a grasping habit with impunity, the law has been amended upon this point
by imperial constitutions, by which it is enacted that it shall not be
lawful for any one to forcibly carry off movable property, inanimate or
animate, even though he believe it to belong to him; and that whosoever
disobeys this shall forfeit the property, if, in fact, it be his, and if
it be not, shall restore it, and along with it its value in money.
And by the said constitutions it is also declared that this provision
relates not only to movables (of which alone robbery can be committed),
but also to forcible entries on land and houses, so as to deter men from
all violent seizing upon property whatsoever under the cloak of such
excuses.

2 In order to support this action it is not necessary that the goods
of which robbery has been committed should belong to the plaintiff,
provided they were taken from among his property. Thus, if a thing be
let, or lent, or pledged to Titius, or even deposited with him under
such circumstances that he has an interest in its not being carried
off--for instance, by his having undertaken the entire responsibility
for its safe custody;--or if he possesses it in good faith, or has a
usufruct or any other right in it whereby he suffers loss or incurs
liability through its being forcibly taken from him, the action will
be maintainable by him; not necessarily in order to restore to him the
ownership, but only to compensate him for what it is alleged he has lost
by its being taken from his goods or withdrawn from his means. In fact,
it may be said generally that where, supposing property to be taken
secretly, the action