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Money Given As Gift But With Instruction To Buy Something Specific [#70]
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I’d like today to discuss a question which has been sent in to us already a few times and I want to share it with you. The question is, sometimes someone gives you money, as a gift, to spend on a specific item or service, and when they give it to you, they say, “please go buy for yourself a …”. You take the money and then, let’s say, you don’t end up buying the thing, or whatever happens, it takes too long or you really didn’t even want to buy that item, you just wanted to be nice and you took the money. The question is, what do you do after that? What if you just didn’t spend the money on that thing? What do you do now? You still have the money, can you keep it and use it for other things or do you have to give it back?
We checked into this with our poskim, and the halacha in such a case is that, since the money was actually given to you under specific terms and it was given to you so that you buy that thing, you would actually have to go ahead and buy that thing they gave the money for.
The case came to us in two different scenarios. We had a case where someone gave money to someone for them to go buy for themselves some fruits and vegetables. They wanted it for the other persons health. They said, please go buy some fruits and vegetables for yourself. The recipient couldn’t say no and took the money. The question is, the recipient didn’t go buy the fruits and vegetables, so what do they do now?
In another case sent in to us, someone’s relatives gave them money and they said, please go buy a certain type of furniture for your house. We’ll say in this case (which I’m changing the item), they said, go buy a couch with the money. And the person didn’t go buy the couch and they have the money, or they spent it on something else. What do they do now?
The halacha is that you have to go ahead and buy the couch. In the cases where you didn’t buy the couch, you have to give the money back. Many people get stuck. They can’t give the money back, because it’s embarrassing, or whatever the case is. So in such a case, then you actually have to go and buy the item. That is the halacha, because the money was given to you for that. Or, you are going to have to work it out and somehow give the money back to the person. You don’t need to specifically tell them that you didn’t buy the item if you can figure out a way of giving the money back to them without saying what it is for. You don’t have to say, “here’s the money that you gave to me for the couch” or “for the fruits and vegetables”. Just as long as you return the money back to them, then that would be okay.
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*Please note that these halachos are intended to inform and educate the reader/listener in general. For any specific questions which arise, it is recommended to speak over the exact case with a competent halachic authority in order to assess the halacha accordingly. You can send your questions in to us as well by replying via WhatsApp to our halacha Q & A number on the group, sending an email to Ask@MoneyHalacha.com, or via our contact page at MoneyHalacha.com/contact-us
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