Finders Keepers? Not According to the Torah

U.S. law may require you to return a valuable lost item, but Torah law demands much more. In most American jurisdictions, if someone finds a lost object worth a considerable amount (typically around $100), they are legally required to report it to the police. After a waiting period, if no owner is found, the item may legally become theirs — even if it is clearly identifiable. The finder is under no obligation to actively seek out the owner.

By contrast, halachah (Torah law) obligates a Jew to return lost property under a much broader range of circumstances. Even small or seemingly insignificant objects must be returned if certain criteria are met. In some cases, the finder is expected to inconvenience themselves in order to fulfill this mitzvah. The Torah’s expectations are clear: we are not permitted to walk by and ignore another person’s lost item.

“You Must Surely Return It”

The Torah states: “You shall surely return them to your brother” (Devarim 22:1), and from here the Sages of the Talmud learn that someone who notices a lost item belonging to a fellow Jew is obligated to take care of it and go to reasonable lengths to find the owner.

This mitzvah is called “hashavat aveidah” — returning a lost item.

When Does the Obligation Apply?

We are only obligated to return a lost object when the following conditions are met:

• The object is lost: It must have clearly been lost or forgotten, not intentionally abandoned.
• The owner has not despaired of retrieving it: If someone loses, for example, a gold watch in an area where it is highly likely to be stolen, the item falls into the category of hefker as the owner has no expectation of getting it back and mentally despairs of getting it back.
• It is worth at least a perutah: The object must have minimal value. A perutah is approximately two cents. The value is in the eyes of the owner. If you find, for instance, a shoe, it is worthless to you, but to the owner it’s worth a lot as he has the other one!
• It has at least one unique identifying feature (siman), either in its physical appearance or the place where it was found. (Coins and banknotes, for example, have no siman, unless they are bundled in a particular way, etc.)
• The finder would have taken care of it had it been their own.
• The owner is someone to whom you are obligated to return lost objects — that is, another Jew who is not excluded from this mitzvah.

If any of these conditions are lacking, there is no obligation to return the item, but it is still very praiseworthy to do so, especially if doing so will lead to a kiddush Hashem (portraying Torah-observant Jews in a positive light).

The Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud, Bava Metzia 2:5) relates a number of incidents where Torah Sages returned valuable items to non-Jews who lost them, specifically in order to sanctify Hashem’s name:

“Rebbi Samuel bar Sosartei went to Rome. The queen had lost her necklace and he found it. It was announced throughout the city: The one who returns it within 30 days will receive such and such; after 30 days, he will be beheaded.

“He did not return it within 30 days — after 30 days, he returned it. [The queen] asked him: Weren’t you in the city? He replied: Yes ... She asked: Why did you not return it within 30 days?

“He replied: ‘So that it should not be said that I acted out of fear of you, but out of fear of the Merciful One [i.e., Hashem].

“She said to him: ‘Praised be the God of the Jews.’”

Who Is Obligated to Return Lost Items?

• Men and women alike are obligated in this mitzvah. However, if the lost object is very heavy or something unseemly for a woman to be carrying in public, the woman concerned is exempt.
• Elderly people are usually obligated in this mitzvah, unless it is too physically difficult for them or it would be a severe breach of their dignity to deal with the item.
• Respected people (such as renowned Torah scholars) are not obligated to pick up and carry home a lost object that would be a breach of their dignity (such as a large sack). However, if they know they would forgo their dignity in a case where the sack (for example) was their own, they should do the same for someone else’s property.
• Nonetheless, the Shulchan Aruch* rules that it is right and proper to overcome one’s reluctance in such cases and forgo one’s dignity.

What If Fulfilling This Mitzvah Involves an Aveirah?

If it is clear that fulfilling the mitzvah of returning a lost item will involve an aveirah (prohibition), then the lost item must be left where it is.

Examples of when this might occur:

• If you see a wallet on the ground on Shabbat, you may not pick it up even to prevent it from being stolen, as one may not handle money on Shabbat. (Instead, you can cover the wallet with something, or kick it to an unobtrusive place where you hope it will remain undetected until after Shabbat.)
• If you are a kohen (priest) and you are passing a cemetery and see a lost object within its grounds, you may not enter the cemetery to retrieve it (as kohanim are not allowed to come into contact with anything that confers tumat meitim—ritual impurity from dead bodies).
• If the item appears to have been left somewhere for a reason (e.g., the person went to get his car to transport it), anyone who finds it should leave it where it is.
• If the item is hidden (e.g., under a bush) and it looks like the owner hid it in order to come back later to retrieve it, anyone who finds it should leave it where it is — especially as moving it could lead to the person not being able to prove ownership. If someone, for example, discovers money in his pocket on Shabbat and shakes it out and pushes it into a crevice, hoping to come back later, and you find it before he returns, by removing it from its place you erase the siman of it being in that particular crevice and the owner will not be able to prove that it is his.

What to Do with the Lost Object

• The lost object should be taken home and put in a safe place where it will not be damaged.
• The finder should post notices at the location where he found it, and also on local noticeboards and the like, describing the item in very general terms and leaving contact information
• The notice should not include the details of the siman, so that when someone comes to claim it, he can prove that it belongs to him. One may not give the lost item to someone who cannot prove ownership.
• There is no obligation to take out a paid ad advertising the lost object.
• In the meantime, the finder must preserve the item in the state in which he found it. If he is negligent and it breaks or is damaged, and the owner comes to claim it, he must pay compensation.
• If the item is perishable (such as fresh fruit), the finder should either sell it and set aside the money for the owner, or use it and likewise set aside the monetary value.

The Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 25a) relates an incident in the life of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa. One day, someone passed by his home and left some chickens there. Rabbi Chanina’s wife found them and took care of them; when her husband came home, he reminded her not to eat the eggs, as they did not belong to them.

Over time, the eggs hatched and the noise and mess of the chicklets started to bother them, so they sold them and bought goats with the proceeds.

A while afterward, the owner was passing by again, and remembered that he’d left his chickens at that spot. “I wonder what happened to my chickens,” he wondered aloud to his companion.

Rabbi Chanina overheard and approached him. “Do you have a siman?” he asked. The man gave a siman and Rabbi Chanina gave him the goats.

Institutional Policies on Lost Property

Public institutions (such as schools or synagogues) should post signs stating their policy on lost items. For example:

“Any personal items left beyond a certain date become the property of the institution, which may use or dispose of them as it sees fit.”

A store or any other place where people pass through may also post such a sign stating that it will hold onto a lost item for a period of time (such as 30 days), beyond which the owner may not come to claim it.

Such policies prevent disputes and clarify responsibility while remaining within the bounds of halachah, as long as the owner is given a sufficient amount of time to make his claim.

Beyond Objects: Returning the Lost Soul

One of the deeper teachings of the Torah is that the mitzvah of hashavat aveidah also applies to spiritual loss. Just as we are commanded to return physical lost property, we are likewise obligated to return spiritually lost objects — and what could be more important to return to its owner than the lost Jewish heritage of someone who is far from the path of Torah?

This is learned from the verse, “You shall return it to him” — which our Sages understand to include not only material loss but also “the loss of one’s self.” Helping someone to reclaim their spiritual heritage is the most significant way to fulfill the mitzvah of hashavat aveidah.

A Demanding Mitzvah with Far-Reaching Impact

Hashavat aveidah is far more than good manners. It’s a mitzvah that pushes us to embody responsibility, attentiveness, and care for other people and their property. Torah law challenges us not just to avoid harming others, but to go out of our way to help them recover what they’ve lost — whether material or spiritual. It’s a profound expression of the Torah’s unique ethical vision: precise, demanding, and deeply humane.

*Shulchan Aruch: The Code of Jewish Law, authored by Rabbi Yosef Caro, the authoritative compendium of Torah law for Sephardi Jews