Sep 30, 2020

found a boxload of cash... did he keep it or return it?

Behadrei has the story of a Satmar chossid, Avraham Rottman, who owns a couple of makolets in Bet Shemesh and Mea Shearim, who found money in his warehouse among the cartons of yahrtzeit candles.

His employee, also a Satmar chossid, was pulling out the boxes of yahrtzeit candles and when he opened one of the boxes he found more than half a million shekels in cash! 500,000NIS instead of yahrtzeit candles!

Mr Rottman asked his rabbi what to do with the money. The rabbi paskened that it is likely the owner had already given up hope on ever getting his money back, so Rottman could keep the money he found. Despite that he decided to try to find the owner and return the money. Somehow he found the owner and returned the money. The owner, a Dati leumi fellow, cried from emotion and praised the Satmar chassidim.

It does not tell us who the owner was - someone from the manufacturing plant or in charge of the deliveries, or some other person? Nor does it tell us how he found the owner. Both would be interesting parts of the story. Additionally, I wonder how this story will go down legally - we all know the government is phasing out cash. Reading a story like this in the news and seeing a stockpile of that much cash is sure to raise some eyebrows and get an investigation started.

Regardless of that, kol hakavod to Mr Rottman and his employee, either could have taken the money and not reported it further and not looked for the original owner. Starting off the year with a kiddush hashem like that will surely stand in their merit.




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6 comments:

  1. There is no part of this story that is believable.

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    Replies
    1. Avi - why? Because it doesn't fit your worldview of Satmar? I personally disagree virulently with Satmar's hashkafa, but based on my personal interactions with a number Satmar Chasidim, find nothing at all unbelievable in thus story.

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    2. If you find it credible that someone mislaid 500K in cash, I have a few business deals you might find interesting.

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    3. There have been stories in the past of people finding cash in furniture, etc. that they purchased, often when it was hidden by one individual and either that individual died or someone else threw it out/sold it, etc. without the knowledge of the original "hider" or the cash. While I can't speak to the veracity of this story, it is possible that someone hid cash in a specific box that he knew where it was, and that that box then got mixed up with other similar boxes and was inadvertently shipped elsewhere. It seems to me that you have to be a doubting Thomas because it's Satmar...

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    4. The box was supposedly found amongst a shipped order. This is totally different than mattress stuffing by someone who doesn't trust banks.

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    5. So? It's not possible that someone accidentally took the wrong box when filling an order? In any case, here is a link to another source for the story, together with pictures and video of the box of cash - https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/featured/1905839/mi-kamcha-yisroel-satmar-chassid-finds-600000-nis-in-forgotten-cash-and-returns-it-see-the-video.html

      Oops....

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