Money left inside gift

A young lady had several extra handbags. She gave them over to a relative of hers as a gift. About six months later, the relative offered one the handbags to a neighbor of hers. The neighbor accepted, and to her utter surprise, discovered that the handbag contains a rather large sum of money — several thousand NIS. The young lady who is the original owner of the handbag claims that she saved this money for her wedding, and this is why she put it in a handbag, and forgot about it. But she never gave up on that money, and always remembered that she has several thousand saved NIS for her wedding expenses. On the other hand, the neighbor knows that a person always checks, where his money is (as it states in the Talmud). Therefore, she claims that the young lady has long since despaired to find her money. Moreover, she says, that if according to the letter of the law the money really belongs to her, she is not ready to give it back, since she needs it desperately, and this was a gift from Heaven to her. Who is right? We are turning to you, the Rabbi, to decide this case, and we’ll do exactly as you instruct us.  

Dear …!

The money belongs to the young lady (the original owner of the handbags). She did not despair to find this money; therefore, the money is her property and she is its sole rightful owner. It must be returned to her by law. The Heavens gave this neighbor an opportunity to fulfill the commandment of returning a lost object. Let us hope that the in merit of this commandment she’ll be blessed with great prosperity.

The principle whereby a person constantly checks his pockets to see, how much money he has, does not apply to the money that’s stored at home.

Shulchan Oruch, section Choshen Mishpat, chapter 262, §3