What is the ruling on one who loses his shoe and finds a similar one in its place?

The questioner : The questioner says: Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings.

The Shaykh : Peace, and the mercy and blessings of Allah, be upon you.

The questioner : After that, I was in the back of the day when I went out after the prayer, and I found in the place of the shoe a shoe that resembles it, and it was a bathroom shoe, and the ground was hot, so I took it. What is the ruling?

The Shaykh : This happens often, O Shaykh. Yes, this man says that he found in the place of his shoe a shoe that resembles his shoe, so he took it, and then he came to know afterwards that the shoe was not his shoe. What is known among the people of knowledge in this case is that he returns the shoe to its place so that its owner may take it. Because it is possible that his own shoe was taken by another person, and that the owner of the taken shoe is now looking for it. And it is also possible that the owner of the shoe that was found took the shoe of the man who found the second shoe, thinking that it was his own, and went away with it. So the scrupulousness is to return this shoe to its place and put it there. As for his shoe that was lost, Allah the Exalted says