three quarters of the house, and his partner has a quarter. He pays the first [buyer] half of the first price, and he pays the second [buyer] three quarters of the second [price], and the second [buyer] has recourse against the first for a quarter of the second price. This is because he takes half of what the first bought, which is the sixth, so he pays him half the price for that. Half of this half has now come into the possession of the second, which is a quarter of what is in his possession, so he takes it from him, and the second has recourse against the first for its price. What remains taken from the second is three quarters of what he bought, so he takes it from him and pays him three quarters of the price. If the second buyer is the first seller, the ruling is as we have mentioned and does not differ.

If the house is between three people in quarters, one of them having half of it and the other two having half of it between them, and the owner of the half buys a quarter of it from one of his two partners, then sells a quarter of what is in his possession to a stranger, and then his partner learns of it and takes it by the second sale, he takes all of it and pays its price to the buyer. If he takes it by the first sale alone, he takes a third of the sold property, which is half of a sixth; because the entire sold property is a quarter, so a third of it is half of a sixth. He takes a third of it from the first buyer, and a third of it from the second, and the divisor for that is thirty-six. Half of it is eighteen, and each of the two of them has nine. When the owner of the half bought nine, its preemption was shared in thirds between him and his partner who did not sell. His partner has a third of it, which is three. When the owner of the half sold a third of what was in his possession, a third of those three became part of the sold property, which is one share. Two shares remained in the possession of the seller. So the three are returned to the partner, and twelve come into his possession, which is a third. Eight remain in the possession of the second buyer, which is two ninths, and sixteen remain in the possession of the owner of the half, which is four ninths. The partner pays the price to the first buyer, and the second buyer has recourse against him for a ninth of the price which