ارْجِعُواْ إِلَى أَبِيكُمْ فَقُولُواْ يَا أَبَانَا إِنَّ ابْنَكَ سَرَقَ
 
وَمَا شَهِدْنَا إِلاَّ بِمَا عَلِمْنَا
 
 

"Return to your father and say, `O our father! Verily, your son has stolen, and we testify not except according to what we know, and we could not know the Unseen! 

Rubil said to them (to say to their father),
 
وَمَا كُنَّا لِلْغَيْبِ حَافِظِينَ
 
 

and we could not know the Unseen!

or, `we did not know that your son had committed theft,' according to Qatadah and Ikrimah.

Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam said that it means,

`we did not know that Binyamin stole something that belonged to the king, we only stated the punishment of the thief,