“Alex, can you please pick up some items from the store on the way home from school?” asked his mother.
“I’d be happy to,” Alex replied. “Just give me a list.”
Alex’s mother wrote a list of items and gave him a $50 bill. “That should be enough,” she said.
Alex put the money in his pocket and went off to school. During the course of the day, he checked his pocket to make sure the money was still there.
In the afternoon, he reached into his pocket to check for the money, but it was empty. “The $50 bill must have fallen out,” Alex exclaimed. “It’s got to be in one of the rooms I was just at.”
Alex immediately asked some friends to help him look and he retraced his steps. He checked around the room where he just learned, the previous classrooms, the lunchroom, and his morning shiur room, but didn’t find the $50.
After asking around, he heard that Boruch had found a $50 bill shortly beforehand in the lunchroom.
Alex approached Boruch and asked him about the bill. “Yes, I found $50 earlier,” Boruch replied. “I used most of it to buy lunch and a sefer.”
“Why did you use the money?” asked Alex. “Didn’t you think you should announce it and do hashavas aveidah?”
“I was told that a single bill lying around is considered something that has no siman [identifying feature], and can be taken,” replied Boruch. “The person has no way of proving that the bill is his and reclaiming it, so he abandons hope [yei’ush] of recovering it.”
“I remember learning that also,” replied Alex, “but it’s not true in this case!”
“Why not?” asked Boruch.
“How can you say I abandoned hope?” said Alex. “As soon as I realized the money was missing, I immediately began looking for it. I even asked my friends to help me look. And since no one else in the school is looking for missing money, and I was in the lunchroom shortly before realizing it was missing, it’s almost certainly mine.”
“I was told that I could keep the money,” said Boruch, “but I’m happy to ask Rabbi Dayan tonight. If he says to return it, I’ll certainly do so!”
“OK, we’ll go together,” said Alex.
After Maariv, the two approached Rabbi Dayan. Alex explained the situation and asked: “Does Boruch have to return the $50 to me?”
“In general, a person who finds a loose bill can keep it,” answered Rabbi Dayan. “However, in this case, there is strong basis that Boruch must return the money. He certainly should do so lifnim mishuras hadin [beyond the letter of the law].”
“Can you please explain?” asked Boruch.
“The Tzemach Tzedek [#89] addresses the case of someone who lost his wallet in a market primarily attended by gentiles,” replied Rabbi Dayan. “Immediately upon realizing the loss, the owner began searching and inquiring after the wallet, which had been found by another Jew. Tzemach Tzedek ruled that the finder does not have to return the wallet since we presume yei’ush. The owner’s search after the item is futile, like someone who protests about his ship that already sank.” (B.M. 24b; C.M. 259:7)
“Terumas Hak’ri [259:3], brother of the Ketzos, disagrees,” continued Rabbi Dayan. “He maintains that only when the item is helplessly swept away, as by a river, do we disregard the owner’s claims that he did not abandon hope. However, other situations of lost items depend on whether, in fact, the owner abandoned hope or made efforts to search.”
“Is our case similar to a market frequented by non-Jews?” asked Alex.