DEUT1174 Since free will is indeed basic to Jewish belief (See chapter "Choices and Freedom"), then, logically, each person who freely chooses to perform any particular action must accept full responsibility for that deed. Therefore, even though a person's action was incited and brought about by some other individual, the perpetrator of a crime out of free will must assume full responsibility. Inciting the deed by another person may explain why the person committed the sin, but it should not excuse him or her. And if the sinner takes full responsibility, then logically the inciter bears no responsibility, even if the inciter urged that the deed be effected and knew what was happening at the time of the deed. This concept seems to have support from specific Jewish sources. Maimonides rules (Maimonides, Hilchot Kelayim 10:31) that if one man clothes a second individual with a garment of wool and linen, a Torah prohibition [this verse], and if the person wearing the garment was unaware of the illicit mixture in the clothing, then the one who caused the sin by placing the garment on the individual is the blameworthy party and is punished, while the wearer is exonerated. However, if the wearer knew about the illegal garment, then he is guilty. In a similar manner, if a man sends his shepherd with cattle to graze in someone else's field, the shepherd, and not the sender, is responsible for the damages (Kiddushin 42b). ... What is the logic for making the shepherd guilty (or the Mafia hitman guilty) for merely following the instructions of the sender or inciter? Can't he claim that "I am only acting as his messenger" and assume no personal guilt? The answer is that in the Talmud (Kiddushin 42b), there is a concept that there is no agency to commit a sin. While I may generally act at someone's behest to do a mitzvah and my action makes it as if he performed the action, if a person asks me to commit a sin, I may not listen to him or her and carry out this sin even in the other person's name. If I do the act, I am doing it of my own free will.