Bava Metzia Chart #1

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FOOTNOTES:
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(1) All of these obligations apply only where the Shomer does not specify the degree of liability that he accepts at the time that he agrees to be a Shomer. When he specifies the degree of liability, then these guidelines do not apply; even a Shomer Chinam can accept the obligations of a Sho'el, and even a Sho'el can limit his obligations to that of a Shomer Chinam (Bava Metzia 94a).
(2) Rebbi Meir and Rebbi Yehudah argue (Bava Kama 57b and other places) whether a Socher has the status of a Shomer Chinam or a Shomer Sachar, with regard to being Chayav for Geneivah and Aveidah. The Poskim conclude that a Socher is considered to be like a Shomer Sachar (see Tosfos 36a, DH Socher).
(3) All of the Shomrim are Chayav for Peshi'ah (negligence). (See RAMBAM, Hilchos Sechirus 2:3, who rules that even one who is a Shomer for land -- who does not have the status of a Shomer for all of the other laws -- is also Chayav for Peshi'ah.)
Because every Shomer is Chayav for negligence, the Torah decreed that any Shomer who wants to exempt himself from liability (by making a claim of Geneivah, Aveidah, or Ones) must swear that he was not negligent in guarding the item. Similarly, every Shomer who wants to exempt himself from liability must make a Shevu'ah that he did not use the item for his personal use ("she'Lo Shalach Bo Yad"). If the Shomer used the item for himself without permission from the owner, he has the status of a Gazlan and is obligated from that point for any Ones that occurs, even if he initially was only a Shomer Chinam or Shomer Sachar (Rashi 6a, DH she'Lo Shalachta; according to Rabeinu Tam cited by Tosfos there, the Shevu'ah that he makes is that he did not use it for his own use *to eat it* or to consume it in some other way). Both of these are Shevu'os d'Oraisa (Bava Metzia 6a; see Tosfos there, 3b, DH b'Chulei). The Chachamim enacted that a third Shevu'ah be made -- a Shevu'ah that the Pikadon is no longer in the possession of the Shomer. Only after the Shomer makes these three Shevu'os does he become exempt from paying for the item.
(4) Tosfos (42a, DH Amar) is in doubt whether a Shomer Sachar is Chayav for Geneivah when the item was stolen in a manner of Ones, such that the Shomer could not possibly have planned to avoid it.
(5) If the owner of the object is with the Shomer when the Ones occurs, then the Shomer is exempt (see Bava Metzia 94b).
(6) Even a Sho'el is exempt from liability in a case of "Mesah Machmas Melachah" (that is, when the animal dies -- or the item breaks -- in the course of its normal usage), because he borrowed the item for using it in this very manner.