Honorary Trustee ("Shomer Ḥinnam" Chaps. I-v)
An honorary trustee is one who finds lost property. He has to keep it as "shomer ḥinnam" until he can restore it to the rightful owner (Deut 22:1-3). The regulations as to what constitutes finding, what to do with the things found, how to guard against false claimants, how to take care of the property found, under what conditions the finder of a thing is bound to take care of it, and under what conditions he is not so obligated—all this is explained in the first two chapters. A trustee who takes no payment is only responsible for such loss of the entrusted property as has been caused through the trustee's negligence ("peshi'ah"). The mode of procedure in such cases, and the regulations concerning eventual fines, are treated in ch. ii. 1; all other laws concerning the responsibilities and the rights of the shomer ḥinnam are contained in ch. iii. 4-12.
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