"All The Warmth Was Wiped Out By A Dry Tally From The Local Police Officer"
2- 28.08.2026, 9:11
- 2,862
A woman from Minsk was looking for the person who had found and returned her wallet, but the story took an unexpected turn.
Last week, Yana, a resident of Minsk, lost her wallet. A kind-hearted person found it and turned it in to the police. The wallet was returned to its owner, but the man’s identity wasn’t disclosed. She started looking for him on social media, but he suddenly showed up on his own: through the local police officer, he asked for a reward for his good deed. Yana shared this story on Threads. We looked into whether she is obligated to pay him, writes “Zerkalo”.
A few days ago, Yana wrote on Threads that she had lost her wallet in Minsk near Zhukovsky Street, which contained a “large sum of money.” This happened on Thursday, August 20. She filed a report with the police that same day.
“Fortunately, the world is held together by amazing and honest people!” Already on Saturday, a kind-hearted man brought it in and turned it over to the local police station,” the young woman wrote in her post.
According to the young woman, police officers returned the item to her this week. However, they did not provide the man’s contact information, citing “privacy policies.”
“I really want to find you so I can thank you in person!” the author of the post wrote on social media, asking residents of Aerodromnaya, Zhukovskogo, and Voronyanskogo Streets to repost it. — Let’s help this kind person receive the thanks they deserve!
As it turned out, the search for the man didn’t take long. He reached out on his own. A few hours after the girl’s search post on Threads, another post appeared. It began with the words, “Can you believe how surreal this is?!”
“It’s just shocking… Check out my latest posts!” she exclaimed emotionally. “I’ve been searching all over the internet for the person [who] found my wallet on Zhukovskogo Street, just to say thank you and show my appreciation. I’m glad the world is full of kind people… And you know what?! He found me himself! But not in the comments. He went straight to the local police officer and wants to demand a reward from me based on the percentage required by law!
In the comments, the woman noted that she had originally wanted to thank this person herself. She left her number with the officers and even called them back to ask if they’d gotten in touch with him. But at that point, they still hadn’t reached him.
“I thought about meeting him to ask him, like a human being, what he needed. Buy a decent, nice gift basket with delicacies, a bottle of something tasty and expensive, or just give him the money—I wouldn’t mind at all!” she shared her plans on her account. — It’s not the money that’s upsetting, but the fact that all that warmth was completely undermined by the local police officer’s cold, hard calculation. It completely killed any desire [to thank anyone]…
In the comments, Yana writes that she now has no intention of voluntarily paying the man anything on principle.
“This is just a despicable act. The police can’t force me to do anything,” the Minsk resident is certain. “So, if he’s so eager, let him file a lawsuit, pay the filing fee, and try to collect. I certainly have no intention of making it easier for him!
According to Yana, what hurt her most about this situation was that, apparently, there’s no such thing as “selfless kindness.”
“It’s just cold calculation. I’m simply at a loss for words—I’m just overwhelmed with emotions…” she noted in her post. “Please tell me, how is this even possible?!” On the one hand—thank you for not keeping it all for yourself. On the other—I’m left with an extremely strange and unpleasant aftertaste.
What does the law say?
As surprising as it may sound, someone who finds an item and returns it to its owner can indeed claim a reward for it. This is stipulated in Article 230 of the Civil Code. The reward amounts to up to 20% of the value of the found item. If necessary, compensation for the costs of storing the lost item may be added to this amount, explains Svetlana Golovneva, a lawyer at the “Viasna” Human Rights Center. At the same time, if the found item is valuable only to its owner, the reward is determined by mutual agreement between the parties.
“If the owner does not agree with the claim for a reward, they may refuse to pay voluntarily. In that case, the amount is recovered through the courts,” explains our interlocutor. — By the way, the finder may keep the item until the “reward” is paid or until the court issues a decision.
In practice, it works like this. Suppose a person finds someone else’s wallet. They take it to the police, where the item is officially registered. And, if the person wishes, they can take it into their own custody. They keep it until they receive the reward. However, they are not allowed to use the wallet or its contents.
A Belarusian man paid child support for all future years in advance, but the court ordered him to pay again. Why did this happen?
In cases where the parties cannot agree on the amount of the “thank-you” payment, the court can also help resolve this.
“How is this ‘up to 20%’ determined by law? You need to look at the average value of the item and deduct depreciation. As a result, the amount may be less than 20% of the price,” explains Svetlana Golovneva. — Other criteria [for determining the payment] may include how much time and effort the return required, whether the person searched for the owner on their own, the (subjective) value of the item to the owner, and whether it was difficult to store such an item (perhaps it is large or heavy).
At the same time, as the publication myfin.by notes, anyone who receives a reward for a found item is required to pay 13% income tax on that amount.
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