'BE CAUTIOUS IN JUDGEMENT' (AVOS 1:1)
Rav Ovadia Yosef used to illustrate this Mishna with the following story about Rav Yaakov of Lisa author of Nesivos HaMishpat:
Two litigants once came before Rav Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lisa arguing over a golden dinar. “Rabbi, I was walking in the shuk, and I found a golden dinar on the floor and picked it up,” said one.
“It’s mine; it had just fallen out of my pocket!” interrupted the other “I never gave up hope of recovering it so it still belongs to me!”
There seemed something about the second litigant’s shifty manner and oily tone that gave away that he was a thief and a scoundrel. Rav Yaakov’s senses told him that was that this man was dishonest.
Determined to back up his intuition with something more with which to judge the case properly, he sent second litigant out of the room and called in the finder of the gold coin.
Rav Yaakov took the coin and called out in a voice so loud that anyone in the adjoining room could hear, “See here, see this notch on the coin? It’s like a scratch just below the first letter. It’s a true siman [as is found in] (Gittin 27b)! If anyone were to use that siman as proof, this coin would surely be given back to him!”
Rav Yaakov then called back the second litigant who had been eavesdropping the entire time.
Rav Yaakov turned towards the second litigant and asked, “Can you offer any siman as proof that this dinar is yours?”
“Yes rabbi!” he answered happily, “There’s a scratch below the first letter which must be as legitimatea siman as any to prove that this is my coin!”
The rabbi opened his hand and showed the would-be-thief the coin. The satisfied smirk of this shady character quickly became a frown as the rabbi said, “Well, I guess this isn’t your coin then, because this coin is clean as a whistle-- no scratches on it at all. I guess you should go and look for the coin that you dropped because this coin belongs to the one who found it!” (Anaf Etz Avos p. 4)
