Related%20passage for Bava Metzia 6:8

הַמַּעֲבִיר חָבִית מִמָּקוֹם לְמָקוֹם וּשְׁבָרָהּ, בֵּין שׁוֹמֵר חִנָּם בֵּין שׁוֹמֵר שָׂכָר, יִשָּׁבַע. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר, זֶה וְזֶה יִשָּׁבַע, וְתָמֵהַּ אֲנִי אִם יְכוֹלִין זֶה וָזֶה לִשָּׁבֵעַ:

If one carries a jug from place to place and it breaks, whether he is an unpaid watcher or a hired watcher, he must swear. [Presumably, he swears that he was not derelict, and he is not liable.] R. Eliezer says: This one and that one swear. And I wonder if this one and that one can swear. [That is, I, too, heard from my teachers, like R. Meir, that each one swears. But I wonder in respect to both. How can they exempt themselves with an oath? How can a hired watcher exempt himself with an oath that he was not derelict? Even without being derelict he is also liable. For this (the breaking of the jug) is not an (outright) accident, but comparable to theft and loss, which are close to dereliction and accident. What is more, if it broke in a place which was not on a slant, how could even an unpaid watcher swear that he was not derelict? He certainly was! And R. Meir holds that this oath is not prescribed by law, but is a rabbinic ordinance. For if one carrying a jug from place to place were not absolved of payment by such an oath, no one would carry a jug for his neighbor from place to place. Therefore, they ordained that he swear that he did not deliberately break it, and he exempts himself.]

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