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What would you do?
A very busy frum store in the Castskills was charging my card during checkout, and the clerk thought he charged me $1704 instead of $17.04. Instead of voiding the transaction (which he should have done), he gave me a refund transaction of $1704. A month later when I am looking through my statements I realize the original charge never went through, so I only received the credit without the debit.
Do I have to go seek out the store owner (which is a difficult task since the store is now closed for the winter), or should I wait for him to contact me to return the money?
I don’t know if he will ever realize since it is a big store and this is just a drop in the bucket for him.
You are obligated to return the money.
sounds like a classic case of hashovas aveidah so yeah i guess you gotta find him.
A)1704 is not a drop in the bucket for anyone
B)how about u say the name of the store , or at least initials and im sure ppl on the cr will help u find him very quickly.
tachlis- lhalacha its a yid , therefore gneiva.
Whats the name of the store?
You have to return it ASAP
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Justsimcha: It’s Assur to steal from a Goy too.
Be Dan le-Kaf Zechus.
Contact them immediately and find out if they know about it. They may have been hacked (meaning someone else pretending to be them put the charge on and diverted the money to their own account).
It’s also possible there was an inputting error.
And of course one should notify the credit card company immediately since you waive rights by not doing so.
Sam 2;
this is not stealing. It is a classical case of taus – mistake. In a case of taus akum , i.e. a goy making a mistake , the halacha is you are not stealing. many rabbonim say to return altz kiddush hashem. By a yid however it is stealing.
Wow! A really good shayloh. I wonder what a rov would say? You really need to find the right Rov for such a shvera shayloh.
KollelGuy_Dot_Com; First of all. Any business entity that doesn’t know the difference between a negative and positive balance of $1700.00 can’t be big. They’d “Lose Their Pants” in one day. There is a tiny feeling sneaking in the corner of my brain, that you are “Not too Eager” to return the unjustified credit to your account. (Sorry. In spite of it being Ellul.). Otherwise, it wouldn’t be the most difficult task in the world to find the owners. Assuming, you are not as absent-minded as the person in the Sugiya of “Tesha Chanoyos”. The 9 (Out of Ten) stores in a shopping mall, discussed in Masechet Pesachim.
Justsimcha: I believe it’s stil stealing, even if you say that Ta’us by Akkum is muttar, in this case the Ta’us would not have been committed by the person whose money it is. He have his worker permission to sell stuff, not give away $1700. I think it would probably still be stealing in this case. I could be wrong though. Choshen Mishpat is very far from my area of expertise (assuming I actually have one).
It simple, Return it!! It’s not yours!!! It’s facsinating how money can be so blinding to the emes! This is a classical example… The yetzer hara can come up with the most original fantastic logical reasons as to why it’s muttar for you to keep the cash, however you know yourself what the right thing is to do!!! And do you know what if it was destined for you to have that specific amount of extra money, it is sure to come your way!! I hope you make the right decision, since you will benefit from it!!
justsimcha; (In response to sam 2) On that subject, I have a little rhyme. (Poem, if you will.) But it only works with the Hungarian/Galitzianer (Chashash () of Killayim.) accent of Yiddish.
“Tooes Akum Mitter”
“Az Men Chapt iz Bitter”
“And people wonder why some people are against kollel.”
That comment is uncalled for, instead of pocketing the money the OP wants to do what the halachah is, why are you bashing thousands of G-d fearing jews?
I would contact the store owner on that same day.
Yatzmich, I hope you’re joking. It shouldn’t need a Rov to tell you to return money to that is not yours if you can. Basic menchlichkeit should tell you that.
Mod-20, give him the benefit of the doubt, I think he states he did not realize the problem until he got his statement which was after the summer.
Metrodriver and everybody else, I think a mistake has been made. The original purchase was for $17.04, but he was mistakenly charged $1704. They gave him a refund for the $1704, but never charged the $17.04. It is totally understandable that a store could miss the charge for the small amount, and the person might think to himself that it is such a small amount and of little consequence that he does not have to try to return it, but, as everybody said, he should give it back as soon as he can find them. Best idea is before R”H to put it in a bag with the name of the store on it, put it to the side and be mekabel to get it back to them. Of course, if you can find them before R”H, it would be terrific, but in the event that you can’t, you don’t want the issue of gezel over your head on Yom HaDin.
no shaila return the money
Contact the credit card company as you would for an incorrect debit. They’ll tell you what to do or they will reverse it.
It’s an befurushe (explicitly written) halochoh that if a goy gives you too much change (for example), you must return it, because he might be testing you (unless you make it very clear that you are relying totally on his calculation and you are not counting it yourself).
This is written clearly in the Rambam Hilchos Gezeilah 11:5.
The credit card company knows exactly who to refund the money to. Call them. Tell them what you told us.
I think Mountain Food in the Catskills is owned by Moisha’s and the Kollel Store.
Yes, call and ask if they own it or how to get in touch.
It is owned by Lazer Duvid Itzkowitz who is the manager of the above mentioned stores.
Kol hakavod that you’re looking to return it. You’re going to get e tremendous schar for this mitzvah. The more difficult to find the owner, the more enticing it is to want to keep the money, the greater your schar will be. In a way, you’re fortunate that this happened, and that you got the chance to do this mitzvah right before the yamim nor aim. H’ gave you a chance to earn great schar!
call 718-436-7701 and ask for LD
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BTW Are you sure that is not the mountain branch of Mountain Fruit Supermarket on Ave. M?
kollelguy_dot_com
You’re a credit (!) to the rest of us….!
kollelguy – just curious – did you think anyone here would actually tell you to just “take the money and run, dude”? or were you just testing everyone?
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