Know! a person must travel to the tzaddik in search of that which he has lost. For prior to a man’s coming into the air of the world, he is taught and shown all that he needs to do, labor at, and achieve in this world. But as soon as he comes out into the air of the world, he immediately forgets it, as our Sages taught (Niddah 30b).

Forgetting is an aspect of losing. Thus, our Sages referred to someone who forgets as someone who loses; as in their statement: Quick to hear, quick to lose (Avot 5:12).

Thus a person must search and seek that which he lost, and that which he lost is with the tzaddik. For the tzaddik searches after that which a person loses until he finds it. And, after he finds it, he searches and seeks after that which others have lost until he also finds that which they lost. Eventually, he finds what everyone in the world has lost.

Therefore, a person has to come to the sage to search for and recognize that which he lost, and take it back. But the tzaddik does not return to him that which he lost until [the tzaddik] determines that he is not a fraud and a liar. As it is written (Deuteronomy 22:2), “until your brother is doresh (identifies it), whereupon you must return it to him”—until you identify your brother, that he is not a fraud (Bava Metzia 27b).