The lost and found article (luqatah)
The lost and found article is the article which is lost by its owner because he did not pay attention or other similar reasons. The owner lost it, in an area which is not owned by a specific person or people, like the masjid, sea, ocean, shore etc…
On the other hand, if you find something in your place, house, car, store, etc., that does not belong to you you treat it as a safe kept article-Wadi^ah and not a lost and found-Luqatah article.. That is it does not become yours, so you cannot say “I will now take it for myself after 1 year if the owner does not show up”.
As for the lost and found article (luqatah) when one finds it, one must notify about it. You would go to the closest place where you found this article where people gather and notify the people about it. Eg: in front of the mosque, not inside the mosque because it is dispraised to notify people about the lost and found article inside the mosque; a mosque is not built for such matters. Or else if there is another place close to where you found it where people gather, then you go there to notify the people about it.
At first one notifies the people there every day, then after a certain period lapses every week then every month.
If a year lapses after the time one started to notify about the Luqatah and his notification was with the intention of owning the article should the owner does not come forth then he is entitled to take it for oneself. However, he must sustain the intention that if one day the owner of the article is known, he gives it back to him if he still has it, or he pays him the equivalent of it if he does not have it anymore.
This is the judgment pertaining to the luqatah.
Sometimes in certain situations, if you write the notification on a piece of paper and you post it where you found the article, then it is valid instead of going where the people gather to tell them about it.
The scholars have mentioned other details pertaining to this issue. If one does not trust oneself that one is able to do what he has to do religiously, then one does not pick the article up rather one leaves it. But take into consideration that sometimes one cannot leave the article where it is. Eg: if it is a currency that has the name of God on it and it was in a filthy place one has to pick it up and cannot leave it.