Thursday, August 9, 2012

returning lost objects

     Hashavas Aveida - returning lost objects - is not an easy mitzvah. It appears simple though. You find and object that you know must belong to someone and you realize that it should be returned, but it can be a pain in the neck to post signs and possibly receive crank calls from weirdos all because you are trying to do the right thing. Gee, I must sound like a horrible person.
      I found some keys next to the elevator on my floor in my apartment building. Judging from the shapes of the keys I could tell that whoever the keys belonged to had to be living in my apartment building. Judging by the mini cards on the key chain I knew that the person must have been an older woman.
     When I first spotted the keys I thought that they may have been mine, but after a moment I realized my keys were in my pocketbook so the lost keys were not mine. For a split second I thought about leaving them where they are, but when I imagined myself  in the same situation I opted to post a note in the elevator and in the lobby about the keys. Within 45 minutes of posting my note the owner was found- an older woman who lives on my floor.
      I wish that I did not have to  say that my lazy self almost prevented me from performing this mitzvah, but fortunately my lazy self did not win and the object was  returned to its owner. Once again the yetzer harah was defeated and good prevailed.
   

No comments: