تَاللَّهِ لَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمْ مَّا جِئْنَا لِنُفْسِدَ فِى الاٌّرْضِ وَمَا كُنَّا سَـرِقِينَ

(By Allah! Indeed you know that we came not to make mischief in the land, and we are no thieves!) `Ever since you knew us, you, due to our good conduct, became certain that,

مَّا جِئْنَا لِنُفْسِدَ فِى الاٌّرْضِ وَمَا كُنَّا سَـرِقِينَ

The answer given was: قَالُوا جَزَاؤُهُ مَن وُجِدَ فِي رَ‌حْلِهِ فَهُوَ جَزَاؤُهُ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نَجْزِي الظَّالِمِين ، that is, the brothers of suf said: ` It's punishment is that he, in whose baggage it is found, shall him-self be the punishment. This is how we punish the wrongdoers.'

The sense of the statement is that the punishment for theft in the Shari` ah of Sayyidna Ya` qub11 allowed the person whose property had been stolen to take the thief as his slave. Thus, the state functionaries made the brothers of Sayyidna Yusuf (علیہ السلام) to tell them the punishment of a thief as in Jacobian law and thereby had them committed to hand over Benyamin to Sayyidna Yusuf (علیہ السلام) according to their own decision following the recovery of the stolen goods from Benyamin's baggage.