Although it was thought at first that he was not able to escape being punished, thanks to the mediation to Nobunaga by Katsuie SHIBATA, Yoshinari MORI and others, his sentence was reduced to the penalty of prohibition of serving, and he began living a ronin (masterless samurai) life (some people interpret this penalty to be a test by Nobunaga to make sure whether Toshiie would serve another daimyo or not, and to judge whether he would be trustworthy.)
当初、この罪での成敗は避けられなかったが、柴田勝家や森可成らの信長への取り成しにより、出仕停止処分に減罰され、浪人暮らしをする（浪人の2年間、信長は利家が他の大名に仕官するかしないか見極め、信用が出来るか試したという解釈もある）。