( 1 ) THIS is a first appeal by defendant No. 1 in the suit. The trial Court has passed a decree for Rs. 20,764/14/- with proportionate costs in favour of a Committee consisting of plaintiff No. 10 babu Prahlad Das, plaintiff No. 11 Babu Girdhar Das and defendant No. 2 Abut Latif against defendant No. 1 Kharul Bashar Proprietor of the firm Haji Abdullah Daniyal. It would appear that in Qasba Mau Nath Bhanjan, Pergana Mau, District Azamgarh, there is a firm named Sheo ram Baleshwar Prasad. The proprietor of this firm was one Sheo Ram. Sheo Ram is defendant no. 5 in the suit. His firm used to do business in yarn. In 1942, Sheo Ram became heavily indebted. According to the plaintiffs case, in August 1942 there was a rumour that Sheo Ram had become insolvent. On the 17th of August, 1942, he had closed his shop. This resulted in a rush of creditors who went to Sheo Ram, and insisted on payment of the debts due to them. Sheo Ram expressed his inability to pay the debts in cash. He, however, said that he had 44 bales of yarn and 900 tolas of silver which he entrusted to his creditors to enable them to convert the same into cash and distribute the proceeds among themselves. The cre