Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

The commandment on the court to judge a thief with repayment or the death penalty: To judge the laws of a thief, as it is written in the section of “If a man steals, etc.” (Exodus 21:37). And the matter of theft is one who takes a thing of [from the] money of his fellow, from his house or from his pocket at a time when the owner is not looking and does not know; and so [too] all that is similar to this. (See Tur, Choshen Mishpat 348.)

The root of the commandment of justice is well-known.

Its laws are for example, the payment of double, four or five; the law to kill the thief that comes surreptitiously or to sell him for his theft; the law of a stolen object that became more valuable in the house of the thief, on its own or due to expenditure [upon it], and the law of a stolen object that went up in price, wherein he pays the [repayment] according to what he stole and the payment of multiples according to the time that he is being judged; the law of a thief that stole from a thief, that he does not have to pay double to [such a one], even before there was a losing of hope of retrieval; the law of a thief who stole consecrated assets or the assets of a gentile, or one who steals slaves, deeds or lands; what is the law concerning repayment by one who steals on Shabbat, and the liability for desecration of the Shabbat and [the liability for] the theft came together; from which assets does the court collect payment from him; that if he is sold for his theft that his value needs to be like the value of the theft or less, but that if it is more, he is not sold; the laws of a guardian that stole or had property stolen from his house; the law prohibiting the purchase from the hand of the thief of that which was stolen, and what is the law with regards to the owners if he bought it. And the rest of its details are elucidated in the seventh chapter of Bava Kamma, in the eighth of Sanhedrin, in the third of Bava Metzia and in a few places in Ketuvot, in Kiddushin, and in Shevuot. (See Mishneh Torah, Laws of Theft 1.)

And [it] is practiced by males, as it is upon them to administer law. And in any place where there is a court of judges ordained in the Land [of Israel], they obligate to pay four and five times [in the relevant cases]. And if there are no ordained judges, they do not have the power to obligate [this], but [they do have the power] to return the stolen object or its value. But the actual selling of a thief is only practiced when the Jubilee year is practiced — even by ordained judges.