[Avodah] prosbul question

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 09/23/2015 03:48 PM, Lisa Liel wrote:
> On 9/22/2015 9:00 PM, Zev Sero wrote:
>> On 09/22/2015 10:04 AM, Lisa Liel wrote:
>>
>>> But a book, you return the same one.  Usually.
>>
>> Not usually, always.
>
> Several years ago, we borrowed a book from my brother-in-law. A while
> later, we wanted to return it, but we couldn't find it. So we bought
> another identical copy and returned that in its place. So I'm going
> to stick with "usually."

Your obligation was to return the exact same book.  Once that became
impossible, you became liable as a shomer; a shomer sachar and a socher
are liable for geneiva va'aveida, so at that point you became liable to
pay the value of the lost book, and that sum became a milveh, and thus
subject to shemitah and ribbis.

-- 
Zev Sero               Gut Yomtov
zev at sero.name