What is the liability sequence for fluctuating increases and decreases in value due to multiple events?
General Chapter
Al-Mughni
Book of Usurpation
Primary text
If an item valued at one hundred increases in value to one thousand due to fattening, then acquires a skill increasing its value to two thousand, and subsequently becomes thin and forgets the skill, returning its value to one hundred, the usurper must return the item and pay back one thousand nine hundred. If it increased to one thousand by fattening, then became thin to one hundred, then acquired a skill returning it to one thousand, the usurper must return it and pay back one thousand eight hundred, as the loss from thinning accounted for nine hundred and the loss from forgetting accounted for nine hundred. If it fattened to one thousand, then became thin to one hundred, then fattened again to one thousand, there are two views regarding the return and liability. The first view mandates returning it with the maximum current value and guaranteeing the loss from the first increase, as ownership rights do not merge with new, separate gains. Under this view, a second thinning would incur liability for both losses totaling one thousand eight hundred.
Supporting text
The second, more measure-consistent view, holds that if the usurper returns the item in its fattened state, he owes nothing, as what was lost has returned, analogous to an illness receding or a forgotten skill being relearned. This contrasts with an increase from a different source, where what was lost has not returned. Under this preferred view, if the subsequent fattening does not reach the previous high value, the usurper guarantees the greater of the two increases, with the lesser one included within it. If the increase was due to skill acquisition, then forgetting, followed by relearning the same forgotten skill, the initial loss is not guaranteed because what was lost (the first knowledge) has returned. If a new skill or knowledge is acquired, this situation is treated like the recurrent fattening, presenting two views.