The buyer dies bankrupt before paying the price

Umar bin Khaldah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: We came to Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) to ask about a bankrupt man. Another man had found his own goods with that bankrupt man exactly as they were. Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: This is the matter in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave judgement: "Whoever becomes bankrupt or dies, and another man finds his goods exactly as they were, he has more right to them, unless the man leaves behind enough to pay off the debt." Likewise, Shababah bin Sawwar, Asim bin Ali and others narrated this hadith from Ibn Abi Dhi'b, but with these words: "Unless the deceased leaves behind enough to pay off the debt."

Abu Bakr bin Abd al-Rahman bin al-Harith bin Hisham (may Allah have mercy on him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever sells some goods, and then the buyer becomes bankrupt, and the seller has not yet received any of the price, and he finds his goods exactly as they were, then he has more right to them. And if the buyer dies, then the owner of the goods shares equally with the other creditors." Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The hadith I have adopted, namely the hadith of Ibn Khaldah, is more worthy in my view, because it is connected (mawsul), and in it the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned both bankruptcy and death together, whereas the hadith of Ibn Shihab is broken (munqati'). Even if it did not contradict others, it would still not be established in the view of the scholars of hadith. Moreover, even if this were the only reason for abandoning it, it would be necessary for whoever knows hadith to abandon it on two counts, along with the fact that the hadith which Abu Bakr bin Abd al-Rahman narrates from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) does not contain the words that Ibn Shihab narrates from him as mursal, provided he narrated it in full, and I do not know from whom he narrated it. Perhaps he narrated the first part of the hadith and expressed his own opinion in the second part. In the narration of Abu Bakr from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), the final words are "fa-huwa ahaqqu bihi" (then he has more right to it). This indicates that the words after that are the saying of Abu Bakr and not the words of the hadith. And the connected version that Isma'il bin Ayyash narrated from al-Zubaydi from Imam al-Zuhri is not correct.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever sells his goods, and the buyer becomes destitute before paying the price, and his goods are still with him exactly as they were, then they belong to the original owner. If he had already paid some of the price, then he takes a share equal to the other creditors." Al-Rudhbari's version adds: "And whoever dies while someone's goods are with him exactly as they were, whether he had paid for them or not, then he (the owner) is equal to the other creditors."

This is like the previous narration, except that it does not contain the story of the one who dies.

It is like the hadith of Isma'il, but the chain is different.
Al-Yaman bin Adi, who narrated it through this chain, is da'if (weak).

Isma'il bin Ayyash is mudtarib al-hadith (inconsistent in his narrations), and this is not established from al-Zuhri (may Allah have mercy on him); rather it is reported from him as mursal. Al-Yaman bin Adi differed from him in its chain, and al-Yaman bin Adi is da'if (weak).