Ds and his lost coat

Diamond Member Joined: Sep 16 2007 Posts: 4185

he hung it up in a yeshiva OOT and afterwards couldn't find his brand-new coat, although there was almost the exact same coat hanging very close by - he knew it wasn't his, since it was a different size, but apparently the other bachur hadn't noticed that.

so he came home w/o his coat.

recently I read a site by Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff where he gives a detailed explanation of just such an example [http://rabbikaganoff.com/archives/1798] and proves that if the loser were to be satisfied with a replacement and wouldn't care if he got back the original coat or not, then you would be allowed to take his instead, with the intention of repaying him for his loss (if you ever found each other again!) - but then again, he would owe you for your coat as well.

I found it fascinating. now if we only had the other bachur's coat...
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