(Mishnah): If a poor man took some Peah and threw it on the rest (to show ownership of all of it), he has nothing (even the part that he threw).

If he fell on Peah or spread his garment over it, we remove him/it from the Peah. The same is true for Leket and the Shichechah sheaf.

(Gemara) (Baraisa citing R. Meir): We penalize him and take away from him the detached and attached crops.

Question: This applies to an intentional act, but what if he did it unknowingly? What if he took the first stalks and first tied them in a bundle and then threw them on the rest (so that the rest are now not properly covered) - do we penalize him there or not?

(R. Shimon ben Lakish citing Abba Kohen Bardala): A person's surrounding four Amos can acquire an ownerless object for him. What's the source for this? The pasuk states (Divrei Hayamim I 22:14), "And behold, in my poverty, I have prepared for the House of Hash-m a hundred thousand talents of gold and a million talents of silver and an amount of copper and iron that is not weighed because of its abundance, and I prepared wood and stones; you should add to this.'' (He used spoils that he had taken in war to pay for the Temple.)

(R. Yona citing Rav Hoshiya): (How is it expounded from this pasuk?) What is the case? If he was within four amos of the items, and then acquired them and consecrated them, he was wealthy (so how could he say 'in my poverty')? If he was more than four amos away, he could not have acquired them, so how could he consecrate them (since they were not his)?

Answer: He acquired and consecrated it little by little.

Answer #2 (R. Avun): What is the meaning of 'in my poverty'? There is no such thing as wealth before the One Who created the world. Alternatively, 'in my poverty' means that King David would curtail his meals (unlike other kings) and consecrate the rest to Hash-m.