Book XI

In the next place, dealings between man and man require to be suitably
regulated. The principle of them is very simple: Thou shalt not, if thou
canst help, touch that which is mine, or remove the least thing which
belongs to me without my consent; and may I be of a sound mind, and do to
others as I would that they should do to me. First, let us speak of
treasure-trove: May I never pray the Gods to find the hidden treasure,
which another has laid up for himself and his family, he not being one of
my ancestors, nor lift, if I should find, such a treasure. And may I never
have any dealings with those who are called diviners, and who in any way
or manner counsel me to take up the deposit entrusted to the earth, for I
should not gain so much in the increase of my possessions, if I take up
the prize, as I should grow in justice and virtue of soul, if I abstain;
and this will be a better possession to me than the other in a better part
of myself; for the possession of justice in the soul is preferable to the
possession of wealth. And of many things it is well said--'Move not the
immovables,' and this may be regarded as one of them. And we shall do well
to believe the common tradition which says, that such deeds prevent a man
from having a family. Now as to him who is careless about having children
and regardless of the legislator, taking up that which neither he
deposited, nor any ancestor of his, without the consent of the depositor,
violating the simplest and noblest of laws which was the enactment of no
mean man: 'Take not up that which was not laid down by thee'--of him, I
say, who despises these two legislators, and takes up, not some small
matter which he has not deposited, but perhaps a great heap of treasure,
what he ought to suffer at the hands of the Gods, God only knows; but I
would have the first person who sees him go and tell the wardens of the
city, if the occurrence has taken place in the city, or if the occurrence
has taken place in the agora he shall tell the wardens of the agora, or if
in the country he shall tell the wardens of the country and their
commanders. When information has been received the city shall send to
Delphi, and, whatever the God answers about the money and the remover of
the money, that the city shall do in obedience to the oracle; the
informer, if he be a freeman, shall have the honour of doing rightly, and
he who informs not, the dishonour of doing wrongly; and if he be a slave
who gives information, let him be freed, as he ought to be, by the state,
which shall give his master the price of him; but if he do not inform he
shall be punished with death. Next in order shall follow a similar law,
which shall apply equally to matters great and small: If a man happens to
leave behind him some