In Mishnah 2 of Chapter 3 we continue to deal with workers who eat from the produce while they are working. Unlike the previous Mishnah, which dealt with a courtyard - which in certain circumstances is itself a factor that obligates the separation of tithes - here the Mishnah deals with someone who sends workers out to the field, and this additional element is not present. The question therefore narrows down to a single point: are the figs being given to the workers as their wages, or not?
The principle that emerges from this:
Figs given as payment: This is like figs that were sold to them, and at that point the matter is considered a small harvest. Once they hold two figs, which constitutes a small harvest, they are obligated to tithe them.
Eating one fig at a time: Even when it is given as payment, since there is no gathering and accumulation of many figs together that would be considered a small harvest, casual eating is permitted.
Figs given as a gift: Even if he accumulated a number of such figs, he may eat them, since there is nothing here that takes effect and obligates the tithing of figs whose processing has not been completed.
Produce whose processing has been completed: Even a single fig requires tithing, since this takes place after the processing was completed.
The wording of the Mishnah and its details:
The Mishnah speaks simply of a person who sends his workers out to the field, and those workers are engaged in some other labor that is not picking figs from the trees - carrying loads, hoeing, weeding and the like. In a case where the employer did not commit himself to provide them with food, it turns out that the food he gives them is nothing more than a gift, and therefore they eat and are exempt from tithing. This is casual eating, and there is no reason to tithe, since it is only a gift.
On the other hand, if the employer did commit himself to provide them with food, then the food is compensation, and the matter is therefore like a sale to them. In such a case, if they hold a combination - an accumulation of two figs or even more - they are obligated to tithe them. The Mishnah therefore says that they may pick one fig at a time directly from the tree and eat it without tithing, since there is no combining and accumulating of figs here; but if they take two at a time, a combination and accumulation is created, and then they are obligated to tithe them.
"V'lo min hasal v'lo min hakupah" - "and not from the basket and not from the box":
The Mishnah concludes by saying that even though they may take directly from the tree and eat - assuming they take one at a time - and they need not tithe, they may not take from the basket or from the box (a kind of container). The reason, as we learned in Chapter 1, Mishnah 5, is that the completion of the processing of figs is their being picked from the tree and placed into a vessel. Once they have entered the basket or the box, they have reached the stage of completed processing, and therefore even a single fig given as compensation requires tithing, since it involves both completed processing and a sale.
"V'lo min hamuktzeh" - "and not from the muktzeh":
From the muktzeh as well they may not take for themselves, even one at a time, without tithing first. The muktzeh, according to the Bartenura, is a pile of figs. Technically, a pile of figs does not reach the stage of completed processing, since it has not yet been placed into a vessel. However, whether we are speaking of a pile of figs as the Bartenura explains it, or of the place where figs were laid out to dry as the Rambam explains it - here the Sages wanted to treat this gathering of figs as though it were a vessel, since it resembles a vessel, so that the matter should not lead to confusion. Therefore, even one who takes individual figs from the muktzeh, if this is his compensation, may not eat them without tithing first.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned that in a field, where the factor of a courtyard is absent, everything depends on one question: is the produce given to the workers as compensation or as a gift? If it was given as a gift, they eat a casual eating and are exempt from tithing; if it was given as compensation, it is like a sale, and any combination of two figs, as well as any produce whose processing has been completed, requires tithing. Hence they may take from the tree one at a time, but not from the basket, not from the box and not from the muktzeh.