לזכות ידיד נפשי הרה"ג ר' זאב רייניץ שלייט"א - איש אשר רוח בו לברכה והצלחה לו לביתו וכל אשר לו!
The gemara [Bava Metzia 26b] says that if one finds a lost object and takes it in order to keep it [called "stealing" in English] he transgresses the aveirah of לא תגזול. See the gemara there!:-)
First of all, appreciate the high level of Torah ethics. A man is a THIEF if he walks down the street and sees an object [without a name] and decides to keep it for himself.
The question is why the gemara says that he transgresses לא תגזול. Stealing in such a way is גניבה not גזילה. It is גזילה when he goes and takes someones possessions away from him in broad daylight [as in ויגזול את החנית מיד המצרי]. This is a stealthy way of stealing called גניבה. So the gemara should have said [if they would have read this blog] לא תגנוב? [See שיעורי ר' שמואל there and much more].
While on the topic - The Rambam calls his section of the laws of lost objects הלכות גזילה ואבדה. Why did the Rambam make a "shidduch" between גזילה and אבדה? There are instances where אבידה's involve גזילה's but there are many other areas of halacha that intertwine in certain instances and the Rambam places them separately. אבידה is one category and גזילה is another!
