Finding a check made out to "Cash"

Question

Is it permissible to cash a check that is found in the street, if the check is made out to "cash" and after attempting to locate an owner, none is found.

Would it be considered the same as finding a $20 bill in the street?

Additional details for the question

if a significant amount of time passes (say 1 month) would it be more permissible to cash a found check. This is considering that the writer of the check and the original intended receiver of the check would have had ample time to cancel the check, if they did not, what could that mean in our case?

(Additionally, is it legal to cash a found check? And would that affect the halacha of this situation?)

Answer 1

no. The reason is for a few reasons:

1. Because the check is unique, it is identifiable and the owener will not have ye-ush.
2. Finding the check is not the same as finding the money. While the bearer of the check may have given up on finding the money, we are not clear on what arrangement the payer had with the payee. Using the check may end up hurting the payer, who may have issued a new check to the payee. This argument might not be valid at all, and essentially boils down to whether a person has a mitzva of hashavat aveda for a sh'tar.