Mr. Sender was the gabbai of Congregation Tiferes Yisrael. His special joy was walking around the shul with the pushke (tzedakah box).

“Tzedakah tatzil mimaves,” he would quietly declare. “Charity saves from death.”

Each year on Erev Yom Kippur, the bimah was covered with pushkes and plates on behalf of various institutions.

“Please try to collect your pushke before Yom Kippur,” Mr. Sender would instruct the people who left the boxes there. “Afterward the money is liable to get lost.”

But there were always some organizations that would not come to collect the money until after Yom Kippur. Mr. Sender was careful to place each tzedakah plate neatly in the office.

When Mr. Sender checked the money after Sukkos, he saw that someone had dumped all the remaining money from the plates into a single box. There was about $150 from four plates.

“What do I do now?” he thought. “How much should I give to each institution?” Mr. Sender asked the president if he knew who had mixed the plates together.

“No,” replied the president. “Just divide it evenly between the organizations. That’s the simplest way.”

“I recall, though, that two of the organizations had more than the others,” said Mr. Sender. “I don’t know how much, though.”

“I don’t really think it makes a difference,” said the president. “It’s all tzedakah and the respective institutions haven’t acquired the money yet. So it’s not a problem even if you switch from one plate to another.”

“I’m not convinced,” replied Mr. Sender. “If people put money in a certain pushke, it should go there!”

“Perhaps the shul is responsible for not protecting the plates?” chimed in the secretary. “I think you should give the maximum amount, let’s say $100, to each organization and fill in from the general tzedakah fund.”

“That seems excessive to me,” said Mr. Sender. “I did put away the plates properly. I’ll ask Rabbi Dayan!”

Mr. Sender called Rabbi Dayan and asked: “If plates of tzedakah got mixed up, what do I do with the money? Can I give it to whichever institution I want?”

“Once money was placed in a tzedakah box, it should be given to that institution and cannot be given freely to another tzedakah,” said Rabbi Dayan. “If the boxes got mixed and you cannot ascertain how much money was on each plate, you should divide the money according to your estimation. You are not required to add money of your own if you were not negligent (Tzedakah U’mishpat 8:9[25]; Pischei Teshuvah, Y.D. 259:13).”

“Could you please explain?” asked Mr. Sender.

“A person’s courtyard (chatzer) ‘acquires’ for him, even without his knowledge,” explained Rabbi Dayan. “Similarly, a person’s container can ‘acquire’ money placed in it, provided that the person has permission to place the container there. Thus, according to many authorities, a tzedakah box ‘acquires’ the money placed inside of it on behalf of the institution, even though they do not yet know that money was placed in their box. It is considered as if the money was already given to their representative (see C.M. 200:3; Shach 200:7).”

“Then how do we deal with our case?” asked Mr. Sender. “Maybe we’re not giving the money properly to each institution?”

“Since the plates got mixed up, you should divide according to your estimation, because all the money is in doubt,” replied Rabbi Dayan. “No organization is muchzak (in possession). If there is no reason to assume that one plate had more than the other, you would ordinarily divide evenly.”

“What if all the money was dumped into one of the tzedakah boxes?” asked Mr. Sender. “Would it now all go to that institution?”

“No, since you know that some of that money was already acquired by the other institutions,” replied Rabbi Dayan. “However, according to some authorities, that institution is now considered muchzak and would have the upper hand. It would be entitled to the uppermost amount reasonable for that box, and the remaining amount should be divided as you estimate (see SM”A 164:10; Ketzos 202:7).”