In the previous task we discussed the case of a person who finds an animal outside Jerusalem, and what may be assumed about that animal - which type of offering it is designated for. The task before us deals with a different question: what is the status, and above all what is the responsibility, of the person who found it.
The responsibility originally placed on the finder:
The Mishnah teaches that at first a security deposit would be taken from those who found such animals, until that person was willing to bring along with the animal the libations that accompany the offering:
The meal offering - which comes together with the offering.
The pouring of the wine - which accompanies it.
In other words, the finder was held responsible: from the moment he found the animal and was going to offer it as the appropriate offering, he also had to pay for its libations.
What brought about the change?
In practice, people stopped taking care of the animals they found. They would leave them and run away, asking to have nothing to do with them, since they did not want to bear the responsibility and take upon themselves the expense of paying for the libations that come together with an animal that was not theirs at all, and whose only role for them was to bring it as an offering.
The enactment of the court:
Because of this, the court made an enactment: the libations - the meal offering and the wine that accompany the offering - would come from public funds, from the Temple treasury collection. The public bears this responsibility, and as a result people would be more willing to take care of animals that were found and may well be offerings.
In summary: We learned that at first the responsibility to bring the libations along with the animal was placed on the finder, and a security deposit was taken from him for that purpose. Once it became clear that this was causing people to avoid dealing with the animals and to abandon them, the court enacted that the libations would come from public funds - from the Temple treasury collection - and in this way the obstacle to taking care of animals that were found was removed.