Or anything else regarding which he had sworn falsely: he must pay for it its principal, adding its fifth to it, to its rightful owner on the day of his guilt.
Leviticus 5:24
The Torah stipulates that a 25% fine be paid to a robbery victim to make up for the loss of income that he could have earned with the stolen money during the interim. If the thief does not make restitution for this lost income, we cannot consider him to have “returned that which he had stolen,” since something is still missing.
This serves as a lesson for all interpersonal dealings. When we have wronged someone, it is tempting to invoke Divine providence as an excuse for neither paying him back nor apologizing, noting that he would have undergone both the same loss and the same pain over the loss in any case. This approach acknowledges that, as the agent of damage, we have committed a sin and must repent, but sees no reason to apologize to the other person.
The truth, however, is that Divine providence only ordained that our victim suffer temporarily. Therefore, just as a thief has to pay not only for what he stole but for the results of the loss that he caused, so must we not only make restitution to those whom we have wronged but sincerely apologize to them – in order to lessen the pain that we caused.
—from Daily Wisdom 3