How are rights restored after repentance?

Question:
The questioner says: I am a person who used to live in a land of disbelief and stole some goods, knowing that he did not pray. After his repentance, he confessed to all the sins he had committed, and the value of the stolen goods is twenty thousand Saudi riyals. He does not know the owner of the goods. Please advise us, may Allah reward you.

Answer:
People's money is not permissible to encroach upon, even if they are disbelievers. It is not permissible to take the money of disbelievers except from the disbelievers of war (harbiyyin), whose money is lawful to take. As for the disbelievers who are under a treaty (mu'ahadun) or have been granted safe conduct (musta'minun), it is not permissible to encroach upon their money. Their money is respected, just as their blood is, if they have a treaty with the Muslims, or a protected status (dhimmah) with the Muslims, or safe conduct with the Muslims. It is obligatory to fulfill their rights. They have what Muslims have, and they are subject to what Muslims are subject to. You must return these moneys that you took. The fact that they are the money of disbelievers does not make it permissible for you to keep it. If you are unable to return it because you do not know them, you do not know them now, and you do not know where they are, and you have searched for them but could not find them—you must search for them—then if it becomes impossible to deliver the money to them, you must dispose of it by placing it in a public project. You fund a public project with it, from which the general public benefits, and you thereby dispose of it. Yes.