What is the ruling on one who seized money from a non-Muslim under a treaty and did not find it?

Question : And this is a person who says: I seized money from a disbeliever and inquired about it but did not find it, so what should he do?

Answer : Yes, if one seizes money from a disbeliever, and the disbeliever is a treaty partner, a guest under safe conduct, or a protected non-Muslim (dhimmi)—meaning there is a covenant between us and them—then this money is respected and it is obligatory to return it to the disbeliever. If he is unable to deliver it to the disbeliever, then it is obligatory for him to give it to the judge so that it may be kept in the treasury of public interests.

Question : The general public.

Answer : Because we do not say to give it in charity to a disbeliever, for charity does not benefit a disbeliever. Nor do we say to give it in charity to yourself, because it is not permissible for you to own what belongs to another. So we say: give it to the public treasury so that you are free of it. Yes. And the one who abandons prayer is the same, but the one who abandons prayer is not equal to him in every respect, because some scholars say that the one who abandons prayer inherits but does not bequeath. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) says that the apostate inherits but does not bequeath. Yes.