What do if your coat is switched with someone else’s?

(Hakhel)

As we enter the winter season (above the Equator), more and more of us will be wearing dark coats and black galoshes and boots, and bringing umbrellas to shuls, simchas and other public places. The inevitable (well, almost-inevitable) happens:

•  My coat is gone and a look-alike with someone else’s name is left in its place!
•  Reuven must have taken my boots!
•  I took someone else’s umbrella and I won’t be going back to shul until tonight!

HaRav Moshe Feinstein, Z’tl, (Igros Moshe, Orach Chayim 5:9, paragraph 7) provides us with his p’sak in these situations. His response is beautifully presented by Rabbi Pinchos Bodner, Shlita in The Halachos of Other People’s Money (Feldheim Publishers) page 199:

“If someone found that his coat, hat, rubbers, etc. was mistakenly switched, he is permitted to use the other person’s coat until he can find the owner and switch back. Although generally one may not use a found item without permission from its owner… when items are switched, it is customary for people not to mind if the other person uses theirs [unless there is reason to believe that the owner would object]. However, if it turns out that the other person did not switch with him, he must ask the owner if he wishes to be compensated for the use of his coat.

Any institution that has a coatroom with a lot of traffic where coats are occasionally switched should, preferably, institute a switched coat policy. The policy should state that anyone who leaves his coat or other article there, is doing so on condition that if it is switched, each party explicitly agrees in advance to give the other party permission to use the other person’s item. This policy should be posted on the bulletin board or in the coatroom for all to see.”

We ask that you discuss with your Rav, gabbai, executive director, etc. the possibility of instituting such a policy. You may save people walking home without a coat, hat, galoshes or the like in the winter weather. You will certainly feel your own inner warmth in accomplishing this very special bain odom l’chaveiro!

For further reference in this area, see Aruch HaShulchan, Choshen Mishpat 136:2); and the following contemporary Shailos u’Teshuvos: Shevet HaLevi 6:238, and Teshuvos V’Hanhagos 1:818.