Shekalim, Chapter Two, Mishnah 1. Our mishnah deals with two matters: how the half-shekels were transported from the city to the Beis HaMikdash, and the question of who bears responsibility when the money was stolen or lost along the way.
"Metzarfin shekalim l'darkonos mipnei masa haderech":
When the people of a city gathered together all of their half-shekels and were about to send them to the Beis HaMikdash, they were permitted to exchange the small coins for larger ones - darkonos, gold coins worth two sela each, that is, four half-shekels. The exchange was made "mipnei masa haderech", to lighten the load on the journey, so that they would not have to carry all the half-shekel coins.
"K'shem shehayu shofaros b'Mikdash kach hayu shofaros bamedinah":
The shofaros were collection boxes, much like today's charity boxes. They were called a 'shofar' because of their shape: narrow at one end and wide at the other, like a horn. The coin was inserted at the narrow end, and the box widened below - so that there was no way to take the money back out and no way to put a hand inside, and this is the idea behind a charity box that has nothing but a slot for a coin.
In the Beis HaMikdash there were many different types of shofaros for different purposes, as we will learn in the sixth chapter. The mishnah teaches that just as there were shofaros in the Mikdash, so too there were shofaros in the country - in the various cities throughout Eretz Yisrael - for collecting the half-shekels.
"Bnei ha'ir sheshalchu es shikleihen v'nignevu o she'avdu":
Here the mishnah turns to the question of responsibility: the people of a city who sent their shekels with messengers, and the money was stolen or lost along the way - who bears the payment? It depends on whether the Terumas HaLishkah had already been taken.
It is worth explaining first what the Terumas HaLishkah is, as we will learn later in the tractate: after the half-shekels were collected, three times a year they would remove a certain quantity of coins from the chamber in order to purchase the offerings. At the moment of taking, they would have in mind that the terumah should include even someone who had given his coins but they had not yet arrived in Yerushalayim, and even someone who had not yet given at all - so that every single person would have a share in all the offerings brought over the course of the year.
"Im nisremah haterumah - nishba'in lagizbarin": If the Terumas HaLishkah had already been taken, the money is considered to belong to Hekdesh. Consequently the owner of the money is Hekdesh, and the messengers who lost the money or from whom it was stolen swear to the treasurers of the Beis HaMikdash that they were not negligent and did not fail in guarding it - and thereby they are exempt from paying for the loss.
"V'im lav - nishba'in livnei ha'ir, uvnei ha'ir shoklin tachteihen": If the Terumas HaLishkah had not yet been taken, the money still belongs to the givers themselves. Therefore the messengers swear not to the treasurers but to the people of the city, and the people of the city must give new shekels in place of those that were lost.
The Gemara clarifies a point in the law of the oath: ordinarily only an unpaid watchman is exempt from paying for theft and loss and an oath suffices for him, and accordingly it would seem that the mishnah is speaking of a messenger who receives no wages. However, the Gemara explains that even a paid messenger is exempt in this case, since we are dealing with a situation in which they claim that the loss or theft came about through circumstances beyond their control - something they had no ability to prevent - and in a case of oness even a paid watchman is exempt with an oath.
"Nimtze'u o shehechziru haganavim - elu va'elu shekalim":
If the shekels that were lost or stolen were found, or the thieves returned them, then both the replacement shekels and the original shekels have the status of half-shekels. Even so, "v'ein olin lahen l'shanah haba'ah" - the people of the city cannot claim that the extra shekels should count for them as credit toward the coming year. Rather, the first group counts for this year, and the second group is considered as belonging to the past and joins the shekels of previous years.
Later we will address the question of what is done with this money, and which group is considered first and which second - that is, which of them, the originals or the replacements, counts for this year and which counts for last year.