Several months ago I went into a hardware store to buy spray paint. While trying to open a particular can to see what type of nozzle it had, it fell out of my hands. The impact caused the lid to come off and also the nozzle where the paint comes out. I replaced the nozzle and the cap and decided not to purchase that type of paint. Later, I thought to myself maybe the can was damaged and I have a chiuv to pay for it. But it was already a couple months after the incident. I went to the owner of the store and asked if it was possible to know if someone bought and returned such an item. He told me that it was not worth the time to look thru the computer records for such a thing. The paint cost less than 10 shekels. I see three possibilities here. 1) Someone bought that can and it didn’t work and it wasn’t worth his effort to go exhange it, or he forgot about it. In such a case I caused him a loss. 2) Someone bought it and returned it and the store did not return it to the distributor and suffered a loss. 3) The store returned it to the distributor and the distributor suffered a loss. Is there an eitza for me to be mistalek min hasofek and take care of this possible chov? Does it help to give tzedaka in the zchus of the one who had the loss? Also, please bear in mind that it is only a sofek if the can was actually damaged. What should I do? Thank you.
Answer:
Although the scenarios you mention are all possible, in a halachic sense the analysis is more simple: You might, or might not, have caused the store damage.
Whether somebody bought the can, returned it, or didn’t return it, is not your concern, but the stores. If they sold a damaged product, then it is their responsibility to give a refund, and so on. If they returned it to the distributor, and caused the distributor a loss, it is again their concern, though they will never know. As far as you are concerned, however, the only safek is whether or not you caused damage to the store.
Because the case is a safek, you don’t have to pay, and giving tzedakah will not make a difference. If you are concerned that it was broken, you can offer to compensate the store, or ask them to forego the possible damage debt.
