The Pit and Its Kin the Stone the Knife and the Load

"And an ox or a donkey falls into it, and the dead beast shall be his" (Exodus 21:33-34) - the Rabbis hold as settled that the pit causes death in ten handbreadths. In nine handbreadths it causes injury but does not cause death. A derivative of the category of the pit is one's stone, one's knife, or one's load that he set down in the public domain and they caused damage, since from the start they were made in a way that causes harm, and they are one's property, and their safekeeping is upon you. "And an ox or a donkey falls in there" - an ox and not a person, a donkey and not vessels. From here they said: if an ox with its gear fell in and the gear was broken, or a donkey with its gear and the gear was torn, he is liable for the animal but exempt for the vessels. To what is this comparable? To one's stone, knife, or load set down in the public domain that caused damage. Therefore, if he flung down his flask, he is liable. The first ruling exempts and the latter holds liable. Rav resolves it according to his own view: in what case is the exemption stated? When he renounced ownership of them; but if he did not renounce ownership, he is liable, and therefore if he flung down his flask he is liable. And Samuel resolves it according to his own view: now that you have said one's stone, knife, and load are like one's pit, according to Rabbi Judah, who holds one liable for damage to vessels by a pit, if he flung down his flask against a stone he is liable.