What should I do with lost money or property I found?

“In principle, a lost item is of two types: A. Such a lost item that the owner normally wouldn’t return to look for it, for example, the seed of a date, or pomegranate peels. If such an item is picked up by the finder, then due to it holding hardly any value, it will be permissible for the finder to use the item.”

“This is regarded as a luqtah item (a lost item). The sharee ruling in regard to a lost item is that one should look for the owner and give the lost item (money) to him. If one does not succeed in finding the owner, then one should give the item in charity to a poor person on behalf of the owner.”

“The Islamic rulings for lost things will apply to these valuable items. You will exhaust all reasonable means to locate the owners until you strongly feel the owners are no longer searching for the items. Thereafter, you should donate these items to the poor and needy.”

“It is not necessary to pay Zakaat on such items which are missing and there is no hope of retrieving them. If these items are later found, it will not be necessary to calculate and pay Zakaat for those years in which the items were missing.”