For the source text click/tap here: Shavuot 38
To download, click/tap here: PDF
The sixth perek of Massekhet Shevuot, Perek Shevuat HaDayyanim, begins on our daf. The focus of this perek is those oaths that the beit din will impose on a defendant in situations where we do not have two reliable witnesses testifying against him.
The most common case of such an oath is when the defendant offers only a partial denial to the claim made against him.
One enigmatic rule in Jewish law is the law that distinguishes between two different responses to an accusation that one person owes money to another. The halakha is that if the defendant denies it entirely we believe him without requiring him to bring any further proof; if he denies that he owes all of the money, but admits that he owes part of it, then he must pay the amount that he admits to and then take an oath that he does not owe any more.
Why do we trust the individual who denies it all, while making the person who admits that he owes some of the money take an oath?