What is the ruling on taking something that does not belong to one by mistake?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: On the last days of Hajj, when we decided to travel and were gathering our belongings, there was another set of belongings next to ours, and we took it with us. When we arrived in our country, we found that these belongings did not belong to us; they consisted of three blankets, a bag containing women’s items, and a small water bottle. Should we take them to the committee? Or should we give them in charity on behalf of their owner?
Answer:
If you know the owner, you must return it to him. However, if it is difficult for you to identify the owner, you should give it in charity with the intention that the reward belongs to the owner.
He says: On the last days of Hajj, when we decided to travel and were gathering our belongings, there was another set of belongings next to ours, and we took it with us. When we arrived in our country, we found that these belongings did not belong to us; they consisted of three blankets, a bag containing women’s items, and a small water bottle. Should we take them to the committee? Or should we give them in charity on behalf of their owner?
Answer:
If you know the owner, you must return it to him. However, if it is difficult for you to identify the owner, you should give it in charity with the intention that the reward belongs to the owner.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم من أخذ شيئًا ليس له بطريق الخطأ؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.