[If] he sold him a field, and he gave him part of the money, and he said to him: “Whenever you wish, bring the money and take yours,” it is prohibited.  [If] he lent him on [the security of] his field, and said to him: “If you do not pay me within three years, it is mine,” it is his. And so was Baisos the son of Zonin wont to do, with the consent of the Sages.

A storekeeper may not be set up for half the profit, nor may money be given with which to buy produce at half profit, unless he gives him his wages as a laborer.  Hens may not be set to brood at half [profit], nor may calves or foals be assessed at half [profit], unless he gives him the wage of his toil and his feed. But calves or foals may be accepted for half profit and raised until they reach a third of their growth; and a donkey, until it can bear [a burden].

A cow or a donkey or anything that works and eats may be assessed at half profit. [In] a place where they are accustomed to divide the offspring immediately, they divide [them]; [in] a place where they are accustomed to raise [them], they must raise [them]. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: A calf may be assessed with its mother, and a foal with its mother. One may in-crease the rent of his field, and he need not fear that it is interest.

Fixed-value property may not be accepted from a Jew, because it is interest. But fixed-value property may be accepted from gentiles, and we may borrow from them and lend them with interest. And so it is with a resident alien.  A Jew may lend out a gentile’s money with the knowledge of the gentile, but not with the knowledge of a Jew.

A price for produce may not be fixed until the market price is known. When the market price is known, a price may be fixed, and although this one does not have, someone else does have.  [If] he was the first of the reapers, he may fix a price with him on the stack of grain, or on the vat of grapes, or on the vat of olives, or on the clay balls of a potter, or on lime after it has been sunk into the kiln. He may fix a price on manure all the days of the year. R’ Yose says: A price may not be fixed on manure unless he had manure in the dung heap; the Sages, however, permit [it].  He may fix a price with him at the best rate. R’ Yehudah says: Although he did not stipulate with him at the best rate, he may say: `Give me at such [a price], or give me my money.”

A person may lend his sharecroppers wheat for wheat —- for sowing, but not for eating. For Rabban Gamliel would lend his sharecroppers wheat for wheat for sowing, [and if he lent them] at a high price and it became cheap, or [if he lent them] at a cheap price and it became expensive, he would take from them at the cheap price —- not because the law is so, but because he wished to be stringent with himself.

A person may not say to another: “Lend me a kor of wheat and I will pay you at threshing time.” But he may say to him: “Lend me until my son comes,” [or] “until I find the key.” Hillel, however, prohibits [it]. And so Hillel used to say: A woman may not lend another a loaf until she assesses its price, for perhaps wheat will become expensive, and they will come to [a transgression of] interest.

A person may say to another: “Weed with me and I will weed with you,” [or] “Hoe with me and I will hoe with you”; but he may not say to him: “Weed with me and I will hoe with you,” [or] “Hoe with me and I will weed with you.”  All the days of the dry season are alike, [and] all the days of the rainy season are alike. [However] he may not say to him: “Plow with me during the dry season, and I will plow with you during the rainy season.”  Rabban Gamliel says: There is interest paid in advance, and there is interest paid afterward. How? [If] he decided to borrow from him, and he sent to him and said: “[I am doing so] in order that you lend me” —- this is interest paid in advance. [If] he borrowed from him, and returned his money to him, and sent to him, and said: “[This is] because of your money that was lying idle with me” —- this is interest paid afterwards.  R’ Shimon says: There is interest with words —- he may not say to him: “Be informed that so-and-so has come from such and such a place.”

The following transgress a negative commandment: the lender, the borrower, the guarantor, and the witnesses. And the Sages say: Even the scribe. They transgress: You shall not give (Leviticus 25:37), You shall not take from him (Leviticus v. 36), You shall not be to him as a creditor (Exodus 22:24), You shall not impose interest upon him (ibid.), and And before a blind man you shall not place a stumbling block, and you shall fear your God; I am Hashem (Leviticus 19:14).

[If] one hires craftsmen, and they mislead one another, they have nothing but resentment against one another.  [If] he hired a donkey driver or a wagoner to bring wood for a litter or flutes for a bride or for a dead person, or laborers to remove his flax from the steeping water, or anything which may cause a loss, and they retracted —- in a place where there are no people, he may hire [other workers] in addition to them, or trick them.

[If] one hires craftsmen and they retract, they are at a disadvantage; if the hirer retracts, he is at a disadvantage.  Whoever deviates is at a disadvantage, and whoever retracts is at a disadvantage.