Why Joseph Searched the Eldest First and Benjamin Swore Innocent

"And he searched, beginning with the eldest" — so that they would not say he knew in which place it was placed. "And the goblet was found" — once the goblet was found, his brothers said to him: "Thief, son of a thief-woman! Rachel your mother stole the teraphim, and you have stolen the goblet." And they were striking him until he swore by the life of his father Jacob, and by the mourning and the burial of Joseph his brother, that there was no transgression in him: "And in all this I did not know who placed it in my sack." Immediately they believed him, because he was not accustomed to swearing. When Joseph heard that they called him "thief, son of a thief-woman," he said to them: "There is a kid of goats here; there are brothers here who sold their brother."