[81] guilds,[82]
and families, have authority, one after the other,[83] to investigate
law-suits among men.

31. The monarch shall annul decisions of suits which have been brought
about by force or fraud; also those made by women, those made at
night, those made in private chambers, those made in a place beyond
the limits,[84] and those made by enemies.

32. A suit instituted by one intoxicated, or insane, or stricken with
disease,[85] or given up to vice,[86] or a minor, or one under the
influence of fear, &c.,[87] or one having no interest, is invalid.

33. When lost property is found,[88] it shall be restored by the
monarch to the owner: if the claimant fail to identify by some sign,
he shall pay an equivalent fine.

34. If the monarch find a treasure,[89] he shall give half of it to
the twice-born.[90] If, on the other hand, a twice-born [find a
treasure], he shall, if learned, take the whole, for he is lord of
all.[91]

35. Of treasure found by any one else,[92] the monarch shall take a
sixth.[93] If the finder do not make report, but [his discovery] comes
to light, he shall surrender [what he has found], and shall, besides,
be punished.

36. Stolen property, however, is to be given up by the monarch to the
subject; seeing that, if he do not give it, he shall bear all the sin
of that person from whom [it is stolen].[94]

37. Where there is a pledge, the interest, month by month, shall be an
eightieth part; otherwise, two, three, four or five parts, in a
hundred, according to the order of cast.[95]

38. They however who travel in forests[96] give ten parts; they who
go to sea, twenty parts, in a hundred. Or, all[97] must render to all,
of whatever cast, the rate of interest settled amongst themselves.[98]

39. But for cattle and women lent [the return] is, their offspring:
the highest encrease demandable for use of liquids[99] is eight-fold;
for wearing apparel, for corn, and for gold, four-fold, three-fold and
two-fold respectively.

40. The monarch should not blame one who enforces a recognised
debt.[100] If he, against whom the debt is enforced, complain to the
monarch, he may be punished, besides being compelled to pay the debt.

41. The debtor [as a general rule] shall be made to pay his creditors
in the order in which he has received from them; but a brahman he
is to pay [first], and, after him, the monarch.

42. The debtor shall be made to pay to the monarch ten parts in a
hundred of the sum p