Question
I recently went to daven at the Kosel. Since I wanted to also daven mincha, I went over to one of the sinks to wash for mincha. Before washing I took off the three gold rings I was wearing and placed them on the sink. In the excitement of being able to daven at the Kosel, I forgot to take back my rings and went to daven. When I finished, I realized what happened and immediately returned to the exact sink where I washed but they were no longer there.
I went to the police in the hope that either someone turned in my rings or that they could see on the surveillance cameras who took the rings. However, the police said that neither did anyone bring them my rings nor was this sink covered by the surveillance cameras. I was surprised but there was nothing more to do. I checked the Tuesday newspaper and noticed that someone entered a notice that they found rings at the Kosel and they left their phone number. When I called the number the girl who answered the phone confirmed that she indeed found three rings on the sink but someone already called and came and she gave them to her. (The finder was a teenage girl.) She didn't ask the other lady for simanim because she looked very religious and didn't think anyone other than the loser would claim the rings, but she gave me the phone number of the other lady. I went with my husband to the lady and, realizing that she was not honest, we successfully pressured her to surrender the rings to me. When I told this to my relatives, my brother-in-law said that really the rings belonged to the lady who claimed them because I gave up hope of recovering the rings and ye'ush-giving up hope, renders a lost object ownerless. Therefore, the lady who had gotten the rings was the owner and I didn't act properly in pressuring her to return the rings even though I was the one who really lost the rings! Do I really have to return the rings to this dishonest lady?
Question in Choshen Mishpot
By Rabbi Yosef Fleischman
