Unequal Treatment under the Law

Simeon ben Shetaḥ was working with flax. His students said to him, “Let us ease things for you. We will buy you a donkey, and you will not have to work as hard.” They went and bought him a donkey from a Saracen, and a pearl was suspended on it. They came before him and said, “Rabbi, from now on you will not have to work anymore.” He said to them, “Why?” They said, “We bought you a donkey from a Saracen, and a pearl was suspended from it.” He said, “Did its owner know about it?” They said, “No.” He said to them, “Go and return it.”

But didn’t R. Huna and R. Bevay bar Gozlon say in the name of Rav: They objected before Rabbi [that] even one who holds that an object stolen from a gentile is prohibited [to a Jew] agrees that his lost property is permitted?

He said to them, “What do you think? That Simeon ben Shetaḥ is a barbarian? More than any riches in this world, Simeon ben Shetaḥ wants to hear, ‘Blessed is the God of the Jews.’”