Q&A: Indexed Payment to an Injured Party
Indexed Payment to an Injured Party
Question
Hello Rabbi,
There are several cases in the laws of damages where a person pays the injured party according to the value at the time the damage occurred, even if the value has changed since then.
For example, a robber who returns stolen property has to return its value at the time of the theft, whether the value has gone up or down.
My question is: should this be linked to the consumer price index? After all, 100 shekels ten years ago are not worth 100 shekels today.
(It may be a bit far-fetched, but one could also go further and ask whether it would make sense to link it to the market interest rate during that period, and return to him the profit he would have made by investing that money.)
Answer
By simple logic, it seems that a rise in the index is not a price increase but a decline in the value of money. The price increase being discussed here is an increase in the price of the item itself, and by its nature that is a relative increase—that is, if grain became more expensive relative to furniture.