If somebody grants another person permission to damage his property, the person is allowed to cause the damage and does not bear liability. One example of such a case is a situation where a person locked his keys in his car, and asks somebody else to break the window so he can get into the car. Quite obviously, the car owner can not then take the person to Bet Din to demand compensation for the broken window. Since he expressly authorized the person to break the window, the person bears no liability.
One cannot, however, grant somebody permission to damage another person’s property. Consider, for example, the case of a person who wants to get into his car with his friend, only to discover that his keys are locked inside the car. As the car’s owner rushes home to bring another set of keys, his friend sees a locksmith and, impatiently, asks him to break into the car. The locksmith warns the friend that this would cause damage to the existing lock, but the friend insists that he break the lock. In such a case, the locksmith would be liable for the damages caused to the lock. A fundamental Halachic principle states, "En Shali’ah Li’dbar Abera," which means that there is no concept of "agency" with regard to a forbidden act. A person is accountable for a sin he commits, even if he committed the act at somebody else’s behest. Therefore, the locksmith is held liable for the damage, even though the owner’s friend instructed him to break the lock, because he had no right to tamper with the lock without receiving permission from the car’s owner. It was his responsibility to verify that the owner authorized him to break the lock, and since he did not receive permission from the owner, he bears liability.
Summary: If somebody gives another person expressed permission to damage his property, that person may damage the property and then does not bear liability. One cannot, however, authorize a person to damage somebody else’s property. If somebody damaged property because a third party instructed him to, he – the person who caused the damage – bears liability.
