A Conundrum

[gnomi]

I got home from the grocery store to find a jar of dried rosemary leaves in my bag that I did not purchase. It *is* hechshered (certified kosher) and it is the brand I buy. But I didn't pull it from the shelf, and it does not appear on my receipt.

Do I:

1. Return it to the store and explain that it was in my bag and I didn't pay for it (running the risk that they will think I shoplifted it and am now feeling remorse)?

2. Go back to the store and give them money for the jar of rosemary?

3. Keep and use the rosemary (I put it in tomato sauces and other tasty food)?


I like rosemary, and I use it, but I wasn't due to buy more for a while yet. Thus my conundrum.

Thoughts?

ETA: I called this morning, and they said I *could* come in and pay for it or return it, but it was fine with them if I just kept it.

Comments

Re: m'yayesh makes hefker

[lucretia-borgia.livejournal.com]

Oh, and iirc you are permitted to recover from the owner of the lost object fair compensation for efforts you expend in trying to identify him/her. (You're obligated to return it but not to expend money for doing so. I am unclear whether that counts for value-of-time-spent and what the compensation rate is, presumably that of a guardian of a cucumber field, as it often is for this sort of thing.) That may exceed the value of the jar of rosemary.

Again, CYLOR before you try to recover those funds.

A final thought: hashavas aveida only counts for certain populations (ha-meivin yaavin); other populations are assumed to always be m'yayesh due to their culture-determined expectations regarding others' behavior. Not that operating beyond the law and causing a kiddush haShem is at all a bad thing, mind. I'm just thinking minimal standards of halachic behavior.