him in some other way, as by getting some one else to accept
liability for him, or by pledge. And this rule, though laid down
also in the statute of the Twelve Tables, is rightly said to be a
dictate of the law of all nations, that is, of natural law. But if
the vendor gives the purchaser credit, the goods sold belong
to the latter at once. 42 It is immaterial whether the person who
makes delivery is the owner himself, or some one else acting
with his consent. 43 Consequently, if any one is entrusted by
an owner with the management of his business at his own free
discretion, and in the execution of his commission sells and
delivers any article, he makes the receiver its owner. 44 In
some cases even the owner's bare will is sufficient, without
delivery, to transfer ownership. For instance, if a man sells or
makes you a present of a thing which he has previously lent or
let to you or placed in your custody, though it was not from
that motive he originally delivered it to you, yet by the very
fact that he suffers it to be yours you at once become its owner
as fully as if it had been originally delivered for the purpose of
passing the property. 45 So too if a man sells goods lying in
a warehouse, he transfers the ownership of them to the pur-
chaser immediately he has delivered to the latter the keys of
the warehouse. 46 Nay, in some cases the will of the owner,
though directly only towards an uncertain person, transfers the
ownership of the thing, as for instance when praetors and
consuls throw money to a crowd: here they know not which
specific coin each person will get, yet they make the unknown
recipient immediately owner, because it is their will that each
shall have what he gets. 47 Accordingly, it is true that if a
man takes possession of property abandoned by its previous
owner, he at once becomes its owner himself: and a thing is