Rabbi Meir Orlian
Writer for the Business Halacha Institute
Q. While in a different city for a wedding, I learned at a local shul with my young son. When we were ready to leave, my son asked me if I had 6 cents. I told him I had 10 cents and gave it to him. “Do you want to see something?” he asked. He approached a vending machine and put in the dime, and the machine delivered a phone charger. Apparently, when that item was selected, the price that showed on the screen read 00.6 (cents) instead of 6.00 (dollars). It seems that the gabbai of the shul, who also stocked the vending machine, had made a mistake when configuring the prices, and my son discovered the error while selecting items at random.
I wanted to fulfill the mitzvah of hashavas aveidah properly by returning the charger to the gabbai, but he was not in the shul at that time. I don’t travel to that city often, so once I left, I would not have been able to return the charger. What would have been the best way to fulfill the obligation of hashavas aveidah in this situation?
A. There are two possible ways to fulfill the mitzvah of hashavas aveidah properly in this case.
The first is to find a local resident who seems responsible and ask him to return the charger to the gabbai.
Now, a shomer (guardian) is generally not allowed to give an item entrusted to him to another person to safeguard. The poskim debate whether the same applies to the finder of a lost object, who is also considered a shomer. Some say that since he only became a shomer because Hashem has commanded him to return the object, the rule of shlucho shel adam k’moso (a person’s agent is like himself) applies, and he is permitted to give the item to another person to return (Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Hilchos Metziah 32). In addition, the person who lost the object cannot claim that he wanted only the finder to handle it (as someone who gave an object to a shomer for safeguarding may claim), because he had no idea who would find it and never expressed trust in him, specifically (Bas Eini, Bava Metzia 36a; see Chochmas Shlomo 291:26).
Other poskim maintain that a finder is akin to any other shomer and may not give the item to others to safeguard (Zaayis Raanan [by the author of Magen Avraham], Yalkut Shimoni 930, and Chazon Yechezkel, Bava Metzia 82:9; see Chochmas Shlomo loc. cit.).
Even those poskim agree, however, that in a case in which the person who lost the object will benefit from the finder’s giving it to someone else to return — such as in your case, where, if you take the charger home with you, the gabbai will have to find a way to retrieve it from you — the presumption (umdena) is that he prefers that you find a responsible individual and leave it with him (see Darkei Choshen 267:1[3]), especially if the object is inexpensive.
A second way to fulfill the obligation of hashavas aveidah is to find out if the gabbai has a secure location in the shul where he stores things, and place it there. Although it is best to return an aveidah in a manner in which the person who lost it will know immediately that it was returned (Taz 267:1), if you return it to a secure location without the owner’s knowledge, you do fulfill the mitzvah of hashavas aveidah. This differs from the halachah regarding a thief or a shomer, who must inform the owner that his object was returned, and if he failed to do so and the object was stolen from wherever he put it, he is liable for it. In regard to an aveidah, however, the Torah states: hasheiv teshiveim (lit., “return shall you return them”), which implies that there are multiple valid ways to return the object. This includes returning it to a secure location without the owner’s knowledge, and even to an unsecured location if the owner passes that spot frequently and will see it shortly thereafter (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 267:1).
In your case, since you know that the gabbai is not around and will not see it immediately, you may not leave it in an unsecured location, but you may find a secure location where he leaves his things and place it there.
