One of the most interpretively rich laws in the Torah is the difference between stealing an ox and stealing a sheep. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan does not leave the puzzle unsolved. "When a man stealeth an ox or a sheep, and killeth or selleth it, five oxen shall he make good for one ox, because he hath hindered him from his ploughing; and four sheep for one, because he hath impoverished him by his theft, and not done service by it" (Exodus 21:37).
The Hebrew gives the numbers — five for an ox, four for a sheep — without explanation. The Targum supplies the reasoning, and it is brilliant.
Why is the ox-thief fined more heavily? Because an ox is a working animal. The Targum says the thief has hindered him from his ploughing. He has not only stolen wealth; he has stolen productivity. Every day without that ox, the farmer cannot plow, cannot plant, cannot produce. The fifth ox covers the compounding loss of future income that the theft set in motion.
Why is the sheep-thief fined less? Because a sheep does not plow. It gives wool and meat, but it does not labor. The Targum's phrase — not done service by it — catches the distinction exactly. No productive labor has been interrupted. So the fine is lower by one.
The Talmud (Bava Kamma 79b) preserves a related teaching from the school of Rabbi Yochanan: observe how the Torah honors even the dignity of the thief. The sheep-thief is fined less because the sheep is smaller, lighter, easier to carry — and the thief likely carried it on his shoulders. The Torah takes into account his humiliation in the act of stealing. Even a thief's shame is factored into the price.
The takeaway: biblical law sees further than the object. It measures the work the object would have done, the future it would have built, and even the dignity of the person who stole it.