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If we find an item someone has lost or forgotten, we must return it. We should feel a strong enough sense of kinship and responsibility towards our fellow that we cannot ignore this lost object. As it says, “If you see your fellow’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your fellow. . . And so too shall you do with anything your fellow loses and you find; you must not remain indifferent” (Deuteronomy 22:1-3). Similarly, if we see thieves about to break into a car or a home, we cannot ignore it but must call the police. If we see water flooding a neighbor’s apartment, we cannot disregard it. We must call the neighbor and work to find a solution to the problem before there is serious damage.
If we find a lost object and do not know to whom it belongs, we should look for the owner using accepted methods, as long as the item is valuable enough to make it worth the effort. The more valuable the lost item (whether financially or emotionally), the more of an effort must be made to return it. When there is no chance of finding the owner, and one can assume the owner has given up on getting the item back, it becomes the property of the finder.
