Makkot 4 – The Basic Case of Plotting Witnesses

If two witnesses said, “We testify about this person that he owes his fellow two hundred zuz”, and they are found to be false plotting witnesses, they receive lashes for false testimony, and they pay their victim the amount they intended to make him lose, since lashes and repayment come from different places in the Torah – this is the opinion of Rabbi Meir. The Sages, however, say that whoever pays does not receive lashes, since a person cannot be liable to both lashes and monetary payment for the same crime.

If they said, “We testify about this person that he is liable to forty lashes,” and they are found to be false plotting witnesses, they receive eighty lashes – these are the words of Rabbi Meir, but the Sages make them liable to only forty.

Art: Jean Charles Meissonier- Two Men Talking in a Tavern