Lost Objects and Found Subjects The Curious Case Mutual Care

The Honesty of Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach:

A great scholar lived in Jerusalem many years ago. His name was Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach. He was a God fear­ing man and spent all his time in the study of the Torah. Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach had many disciples and students, but he never accepted any fees from them. He earned his meager livelihood by making ink. Early in the morning Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach would go to the woods and gather a sack-full of chestnuts and carry it home on his shoulders. Out of these nuts he would make ink and sell it.

Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach was very poor, but he had no regrets except one - that too much time was wasted on carrying the loads of nuts on his bare shoulders. How he wished he could spend this time in the company of his students and teach them more and more of the Divine wisdom of the Torah. Finally, he decided to buy a mule. He sold the chat­tels of his home and bought a mule.

When he brought the mule from the market, his students went out to see it. They stroked it and petted it and ad­mired it, and then they suddenly dis­covered a precious stone hanging down from its neck, hidden in a little bag. The students rushed into the house. "God's name be praised!", they ex­claimed. "God has rewarded your piety. You are a wealthy man now! Our dear master shall know no more want!"

They showed him the precious dia­mond which they had discovered on the mule. But Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach did not share their excitement.

"G‑d forbid, that I take this dia­mond," he said. "I only bought a mule from that Ishmaelite, and this diamond does not belong to me."

Whereupon Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach ran to the market in search of the man who had sold him the mule. He found the Ishmaelite and returned to him the precious stone. The Ishmaelite was amazed at such unheard of honesty.

"Blessed be the God of Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach!", he exclaimed, and never became tired of repeating it over and over again (based on Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:3)

Lost Property (from Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute)

The common law distinguished between lost property and mislaid property.

• Lost property is personal property that was unintentionally left by its true owner.
• Mislaid property is personal property that was intentionally set down by its owner and then forgotten. For example, a wallet that falls out of someone's pocket is lost. A wallet accidentally left on a table in a restaurant is mislaid.

At common law, a person who found lost personal property could keep it until and unless the original owner comes forward. This rule applied to people who discovered lost property in public areas, as well as to people who discovered lost property on their property.

Mislaid property, on the other hand, generally goes to the owner of the property where it was found. Thus, for example, a person who finds a wallet lost in the street may keep it. If, however, a person finds a wallet inside a barbershop, the shop owner might have a better claim to the wallet. The basic theory behind this distinction is that owners of mislaid property are more likely to remember where the property is. Allowing property owners to keep it makes it easier for the true owner to recover the property.

Real property may not be lost or mislaid.

Many jurisdictions have statutes that modify the common law's treatment of lost or abandoned property. Typically, these statutes require lost personal property to be turned over to a government official, and that if the property is not claimed within a set period of time, it goes to the finder and the original owner's rights to the property are terminated.

Ye'ush: Lit., despair. Refers to the owner's despair of recovering an article that was lost or stolen. A lost article whose owner has given up hope of its recovery is considered ownerless (hefker) and may be acquired by the finder. If an article is lost in a natural disaster, it is considered as if the owner despaired of its recovery immediately. When reference to stolen property, the owner's despair of the article's return removes his ownership over the property and allows it to be acquired by the person to whom it is given or sold by the thief. In such a case, the article itself need not be returned to its original owner. However, the thief himself is required to return the object if he has it, or to reimburse the owner for its value.