7. If a quadruped shall be said to have caused damage (_pauperies_),
legal action (_actio_) [shall be sanctioned] either for the surrender
of the thing which made the damage[42] or for the offer of assessment
for the damage.
8. [If a person] pasture [his] cattle [on a neighbor's land, he shall
be liable to a legal action].[43]
9. He who has enchanted crops[44] ... nor should he decoy another's
corn ... [45]
10. For pasturing on or for cutting secretly by night [another's]
crops acquired by tillage [shall be] in the case of an adult hanging
and death [by sacrifice] to Ceres;[46] a person under the age of
puberty (under 15 years of age) [shall] either be scourged at the
discretion [of the magistrate] or make composition by [paying] double
[damages] for the harm [done].
11. Who shall have destroyed by burning a building or a stack of corn
set alongside a house is ordered to be bound, scourged, burned to
death, provided that knowingly and consciously he shall have committed
this; but if this be by accident [, that is] by negligence, either he
is ordered to repair the damage or, if he be too poor to be competent
for such punishment, he shall be chastised more lightly.
12. Any person who shall have felled wrongfully (_iniuria_) other
persons' trees shall pay 25 asses for every [tree].
13. If theft has been done by night, if [owner] has killed him (the
thief), he (the thief) shall be [held] killed lawfully (_iure_).
14. It is forbidden that a thief be killed by day ... Unless he (the
thief) defend himself with a weapon, even though he (the thief) shall
have come with a weapon, unless he (the thief) shall use that weapon
and shall resist, you shall not kill him. And even if he (the thief)
resist, [you] shall shout [, that some persons may hear and
assemble].[47]
15. In the case of all other thieves caught in the act [it is
ordained] that freemen be scourged and be adjudged [as bondsmen] to
the person against whom the theft has been committed, provided that
they had done this by day and had not defended themselves with a
weapon; that slaves caught in the act of theft be whipped with
scourges and be thrown from the rock;[48] that boys below the age of
puberty (under 15 years old) be flogged at [the magistrate's]
discretion and that damage done by them be repaired.
16. Thefts which have been discovered through [use of] platter and
loincloth [shall be punished just as if the culprits had been caught
in the act]. For cases of stolen goods discovered (_furtum conceptum_)
[by other means than by platter and loincloth] or introduced (_furtum
oblatum_) the penalty is triple [damages].[49]
17. If a person plead on case of theft, in which [the thief] shall not
be caught in the act, [the thief] shall compound for the loss by
[paying] double [damages].[50]