Man fined 46,000 for failure to return lost diamond ring

Comment

Many doubts and uncertainties

I failed to find the ruling on the court’s official website, so I do not have a detailed explanation of the proof collected by the court. However, we cannot identify Zhang cannot have been identified only by he video from the parking lot.

For the lost diamond ring, how can we gauge its price merely based on a shopping receipt? Where’s the proof that the one lost was the one originally bought?

– Wang Lin, senior editor at Xi’an Evening News

Cold legal burden

The judgment not only put an unreasonable burden on the accused, but on every one of us in society. How can any of us judge the value of stuff we pass on the street on our way home? And do we have to bear the obligation of taking care of every piece of unknown property? This will generate panic.

The accused had no ability to judge the value of the stone he found, and therefore has no obligation to take care of it. Even though he failed to produce the ring to the police, the accuser, who lost the ring in the first place, should take responsibility. Why was Zhang forced to pay the full price of the ring?

– Mao Jianguo, columnist from People’s Daily

Is diamond a bomb?

It is not a diamond ring; it is a time bomb. What if this was all a scheme? Say the accuser hid the diamond ring and deliberately threw a fake ring to induce others to pick it up. Nobody can deny that such a scheme isn’t possible. The camera cannot tell whether the diamond is authentic or fake. 

What kind of joke is this? So if one day someone’s wife runs away and I see it but don’t stop her, am I supposed to compensate that person with a wife? The court’s ruling has only taught us that if you do not want to be screwed, do not go pick up things on the streets.

– Liu Shuo, a 32-year-old Beijing office worker

Not necessarily the wrong judgment

Please do not ignore the obvious possibility that Zhang lied when he said he threw away the ring, instead of keeping the valuable diamond for himself.

There is precedent for the court’s ruling. A property law established in 2007, which aims to protect private property, clearly stipulates that lost property should be returned to its rightful owner. Those that find misplaced articles should inform the owner or the person who lost them or hand them in to relevant authorities within 20 days of the property being found.

Zhang’s conduct was not in line with the property law. Also, there is a traditional Chinese virtue of  “returning money found.” The law encourages these sound values and calls on society to carry on this tradition.

– Xu Mingxuan, an attorney at law