Tuesday, October 23, 2018

halacha - Train ticket not collected: destroy?



Assuming a train line where single-ride tickets are normally collected or cancelled manually by train crew circulating among seated passengers, and it is physically possible to use them later if they are not:


If one takes a ride for which one has purchased a single-ride ticket or equivalent, and for some reason the conductor does not cancel it, should one destroy the ticket, as one has in fact used the service which was paid for?


I doubt this would be considered a "ta'ut" in the strict sense, as it is part of normal operations that sometimes not everyone's ticket will be collected. I could hear how one would not be required to destroy it, as this is part of the transportation business, but that it would be ethically superior to destroy it. I could also hear that preserving one's money under these equivocal circumstances would also be ethically advantageous, not to mention practically.



Answer



Maybe it would be similar to the case of an uncancelled stamp? This page cites R. Menashe Klein zt"l as ruling that you can't reuse the stamp in that case, because of dina d'malchusa.


(There is also the famous story of the Chofetz Chaim ripping up stamps when he had letters delivered by courier rather than the postal system, so as not to deprive the government of the revenue, although R. Klein says that this was not technically necessary since he hadn't in fact used the service.)


Though if that's the case, it might indeed depend on whether the train is government-owned and/or -operated (like Amtrak) or a private concern (say an excursion train or a Greyhound bus); perhaps in the latter case there'd indeed be no need to destroy the ticket.


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