Kedushin 29

 Interesting and beautiful Gemara in this Mondays Daf(kedushin 29). The gemara says the following (I will paraphrase/ loosely translate with explanation)

 פדאו במנה ולא הספיק למושכו עד שעמד במאתים מה שפדה  פדוי ואין נותן אלא מנה

 

The gemara makes a statement,  that if someone attempts to redeem something that was consecrated to  the mikdash worth a hundred dollars and paid the money (which completes the transaction as far as hekdesh is concerned)but he hadn't had time to finish the transaction (via physical transference), before the price of what he was trying to redeem increased to two hundred dollars; he is still only required to pay one hundred dollars

The gemara then asks, 

אמאי הכא נמי נימא לא יהא כח הדיוט חמור מהקדש

Why don't we say(as we said before) that the strength of a regular persons transaction with other people, should not be more powerful than when making a transaction with hekdish. In other words, when a transaction between two ordinary people takes place; if the transaction was not completed(by transferring the object; even if payment was already made),

the buyer loses out and would then need to pay the increased price(if he still wants to complete the purchase). 

Why don't we say the same when one wants to redeem from hekdesh and now force this person to pay the increased price, if he still wants the object from hekdish?

The gemara gives an interesting answer,

אטו הדיוט לאו במי שפרע קאי

Would then a regular person not receive the curse of "he who punished"...

The explanation is that there was a curse for people that gave over money for a transaction and then the seller backs out before the transfer of the object(even though legally that had every right to back out). The curse was " the one that punished the generation of the flood and the generation of the tower of babel will take revenge against those that don't keep their word".

In other words, even the temple/hekdesh needs to keep their word and not benefit from a transaction that both sides committed to and began  but was not yet technically completed.

 Basically God(or the caretakers of his temple) are required to keep his/their word as it regards transactions, because otherwise how can God expect man, to do so himself. After all, aren't we supposed to imitate God :)