A tailor keeping leftover cloth

Question

Zayd works as a tailor: he sews people’s clothes and, taking a reasonable charge for the stitching, supports his children and family; he has no other livelihood. However, Zayd has made it his practice that when he cuts a Muslim’s cloth, he returns whatever is left over, but he does not return the leftover cloth of non-Muslims. What is the ruling on doing this?

Answer

Theft, whether from a Muslim or from a non-Muslim, is impermissible and haram; and the matter of stealing from a non-Muslim is even graver. In “al-Durr al-Mukhtar” and other books this point is stated: [ar]خُصُومَةُ الذِّمِّيِّ أَشَدُّ مِنْ خُصُومَةِ الْمُسْلِمِ[/ar] “The claim of a dhimmi (a non-Muslim under the protection of the Muslim state)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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