QUESTION:

What do the scholars of the Din and muftis of the Sacred Law state regarding the following issue: if someone stole some money then passed this stolen money to second person to spend. Is the (liability upon the) thief or the second person who was given it to spend, to refund the initial owner?

Questioner: Bilal from Oldham, UK

ANSWER:

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب

If the stolen money is with the second person and he has become aware that this money belongs to someone else due to it being stolen then it will be necessary for him to return the money to the rightful owner. And if this second person had spent all the money not knowing it had been stolen then so long as the thief had not been punished then it is wajib (necessary) upon the thief to recompense meaning that the thief has to return that exact amount back to the owner.

As it is stated in Bahār-e-Sharī’at that.

“If the thief sold [that stolen item] or gifted it, and subsequently, the buyer [of that stolen item] or the (gifted) recipient, lost it, then, these aforementioned (buyer/receiver), they’ll pay the fine (not the thief).

And the buyer should get his compensation from the thief.

And if the hand is not amputated, the [actual] owner [of the stolen thing] takes compensation from the thief.”

[Bahār-e-Sharī’at, Volume 2, Part 9, pg 421]

واللہ تعالی اعلم ورسولہ اعلم صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم
کتبہ ابو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء قادری

Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qadri
Translated by Abu Dihh’ya & Abu Zayn

Read the original answer in Urdu here – [Q-ID0403] A thief gives stolen money to someone else who spends it, who must give the money back to the owner?

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