It all started with an old saying: shi jin bu mei, which literally means "picking up gold but not hide it", or loosely "finders should not be keepers".

The axiom refers to what many Chinese consider an age-old virtue that, whenever you find a lost item, no matter how valuable, you should return it, not keep it.

A breed of small businesses built around the concept of "paying a fee for lost-and-found items" is threatening to change that, or at least add a new dimension.

Some people are shocked to learn that finders are compensated financially. "In our days, we'd have been proud to return it and see the happy face of the owner. Getting a thank-you was the best reward. But nowadays we have absurdities like insurance for drunk driving, and now this," said an elderly teacher.

The strongest argument against paying for a lost-and-found service can be summed up in one phrase: It is a sign of moral degradation to debase a heart of gold to petty monetary gains.

Proponents don't see it that way. A lost-and-found business is a better platform that links the loser and the finder because everyone involved has an incentive to reach the other party. In a market economy, a person's time has value. It takes time for the finder to locate the loser, and for the loser, the opportunity cost to get a replacement is usually much higher than a little fee for the lost item.

For example, many service firms charge 20 yuan (US$2.4) for the owner to get back a lost ID card. Of this amount, half is given to the finder as a financial incentive. But if the loser reports the loss to the police department and applies for a replacement card, he'll have to pay much more.

Besides, this does not violate the spirit of shi jin bu mei, contend some experts.

"That expression means finders do not keep the item, but it does not bar the paying of reward. A pay service does not run counter to the essence of the tradition, it only makes it more efficient," says Gu Jun, professor of sociology at Shanghai University.

Li Qian, proprietor of such a pay service in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, says that the best thing about her business is the proactive attitude.

"Our business model drives us to get the lost items to the rightful owners at the earliest possible time. So we have a much higher rate of locating losers, which hovers around 96 per cent," she claims.

As people move about more frequently, they tend to lose more of their personal belongings.

For example, in the first 10 months of this year, Beijing taxis passed 1,300 lost items to the city traffic police. Among them were 500 cellular phones, 600,000 yuan (US$72,550) in cash and eight notebook computers. Many of these items have not got back to the owners because they either did not report them or did not know where to look for them.

"It all depends on the ethics and integrity of the taxi driver. There's nothing we can do if the driver keeps the lost item and claims he has not seen it," says a manager with a Beijing taxi company.

Opponents fear that a pay service would become a hotbed for crime.

Thieves and robbers will sell their loot here just as drug sellers launder their ill-got money, they maintain.

But Li Qian clarifies that it is unlikely. "We constantly work with the police and we keep a record of all finders."

She adds that the law stipulates that the finder can charge a fee of between 3 and 20 per cent of the value of the lost item. "And we've never had a customer who was reluctant to pay."

About 80 per cent of finders feel it reflects the value of their time and effort to be paid, reveals Li Qian. There are about 10 per cent who refuse financial reward, and another 10 per cent who do it only for the reward.

If Li has her way, fewer losers will be weepers.

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