finders keepers
Discoverer's ownership claim
Finders keepers is a children's rule claiming that whoever finds something gets to keep it.
The full rhyme is "finders keepers, losers weepers." Adults invoke it playfully or sarcastically when claiming found items: I found a twenty on the sidewalk—finders keepers.
The phrase can justify dubious possession or mock someone who lost something.
- treasure troveOwnerless valuables found hidden
- prizeReward for winning
- folk sayingsTraditional popular maxims
- lost propertyBelongings separated from owners
- adverse possessionClaiming land through occupation
luck · ownership · claim · salvage rights · informal rules · idiom · abandonment · greed · property law · found object · rightful · morality · entitlement · finder's fee · opportunism · mine · found · proverb
- kidspeakboo-boo, booboo, cooties, gimme, gonna
- playground rulesdibs, do-over, called it, time out, first pick
- dibsdibs, mine, claimed, called it, shotgun
- legal maximscaveat emptor, mens rea, bona fide, prima facie, ex post facto
- playground callsnot it, dibs, my turn, you're it, you're out
- social codessocial norms, social norm, unwritten rule, unspoken rule, unspoken rules
finders keepersrightful owner
One with legitimate claim
give it back · lost and found · return to sender · theft · do the right thing
finders keepersshare and share alike
Divide resources equally among all
generosity · communal property · selflessness · common ownership · give it back
finders keepersdo the right thing
Behave with moral integrity
honesty is the best policy · integrity · moral duty · conscience · selflessness