He was told, "Whoever did not migrate is doomed."He said, I responded, "I will not go back to my family until I come to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ." So I mounted my camel and went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, "Messenger of Allah, they claim that whoever did not migrate is doomed."He replied, "Not at all, Abu Wahb. Return to the valleys of Makkah."He said, While I was sleeping, a thief came and snatched my garment from under my head. I caught up with him and brought him to the Prophet ﷺ and said, "This man stole my garment."The Prophet ﷺ ordered that his hand be cut off.I said, "Messenger of Allah, this is not what I intended. He may have it as charity."He said, "Why did you not do so before bringing him to me?"
أنه قيل له: هلك من لم يهاجر. قال: فقلت: لا أصل إلى أهلي حتى آتي رسول الله ﷺ فركبت راحلتي، فأتيت رسول الله ﷺ فقلت: يا رسول الله، زعموا أنه هلك من لم يهاجر؟ قال: كلا أبا وهب، فارجع إلى أباطح مكة قال: فبينما أنا راقد إذ جاء السارق، فأخذ ثوبي من تحت رأسي، فأدركته. فأتيت به النبي ﷺ. فقلت: إن هذا سرق ثوبي. فأمر به ﷺ أن يقطع. قال: قلت: يا رسول الله: ليس هذا أردت. هو عليه صدقة. قال: فهلا قبل أن تأتيني به؟
Malik narrated it in the Hudud chapter (31), Ahmad (15303) with this wording, Abu Dawud (4394), Nasai (4881), Ibn Majah (2595), Hakim (4/380), and Bayhaqi (8/265), all of them through chains going back to Safwan bin Umaya. Some of them narrated it with the chain broken before reaching a companion, and some narrated it with the chain fully connected, and the hadith is sahih. Hakim graded it sahih.Khattabi said, "Those who held the view that no hand-cutting penalty applies to stolen property once the thief comes to own it, before it is brought before the ruler, have used as evidence his saying, 'Why wasn't this done before you brought it to me?' They said, 'This shows that if the owner had given it to him as a gift, or had absolved him of it, before bringing him before the ruler, the hand-cutting penalty would have been dropped from him.'"As for what is reported from Ibn Abbas, that Safwan bin Umaya brought to the Prophet ﷺ a man who had stolen a garment of his, and said, "O Messenger of Allah, give him to me as a gift," and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Why not before you brought him to us?" this report is daif.It was narrated by Daraqutni (3/204–206) and Hakim (4/380), both through the hadith of Abu Asim Dahhak bin Makhlad Shaybani, who said, Zakariya bin Ishaq narrated to us, from Amr bin Dinar, from Tawus, from Ibn Abbas, and he related it.Sufyan bin Uyayna differed from him, narrating it from Amr bin Dinar from Tawus, without mentioning Ibn Abbas. Bayhaqi narrated it (8/265) through the route of Shafii, from Sufyan, and said, "The mention of Ibn Abbas in it is not sahih."I say, it is as he said, for Sufyan bin Uyayna is more reliable when it comes to Amr bin Dinar. It has other routes with Nasai and others, and they are weaker than this one.