Study Nedarim folio 34A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
תנן: מקום שנוטלין עליה שכר — תפול הנאה להקדש. בשלמא למאן דאמר אפילו בשנכסי בעל אבידה אסורים על מחזיר נמי מהדר — היינו דקתני מקום שנוטלין עליה שכר תפול הנאה להקדש.
We learned in the Mishnah: In a place where one takes payment for returning a lost item, the benefit that he receives for returning the item should fall into the category of consecrated Temple property. The Talmud asks: Granted, according to the one who says that even in a case where the property of the owner of the lost item is forbidden to the one returning the lost item, he returns it to him. This explanation is consistent with that which the Mishnah teaches: In a place where one takes payment for returning a lost item, the benefit that he receives for returning the item should fall into the category of consecrated Temple property.
אלא למאן דאמר כשנכסי בעל אבידה אסורים על מחזיר לא מהדר, אמאי תפול הנאה להקדש?
However, according to the one who says that in a case where the property of the owner of the lost item is forbidden to the one returning the lost item, he may not return it to him, and the Mishnah is referring exclusively to a case where the property of the one returning the lost object is forbidden to the owner of the lost object, why should the benefit fall into the category of consecrated Temple property? It is not prohibited for him to benefit from the property of the owner.
אחדא קתני.
The Talmud answers: The tanna of the Mishnah teaches about only one of the cases: The property of the one returning the lost object is forbidden to the owner, and the one returning the lost object refuses to accept compensation. In that case, the owner of the lost item benefits from the one returning the lost object by allowing him to keep the compensation. Therefore, the benefit is donated to the Temple treasury.