Depends on where.

Several years ago I dropped a glove somewhere in Harrods. My travel companion and I retraced our route, asking everywhere we had been. Just about everyone we asked told us to go to Lost and Found. Having the same opinion of Lost and Found offices as the first post here expresses, I ignored them. Finally, having exhausted all the other options, we figured we might as well try L&F before giving up. I said to the clerk "I'm looking for a men's glove, exactly like this one (I pointed) except for the left hand." She went immediately to a drawer and took out a plastic bag, with my glove inside, stapled closed with the staple also holding a form saying who found it, when, and where.

A few years later I left my then-new (and fairly expensive) digital camera on the airport bus from my Reykjavik hotel to Keflavik airport. Again, I looked everywhere - including getting someone to let me back on the bus, which was parked awaiting its next run - to no avail. It was finally time to board. There was my camera, at the security checkpoint, because the folks who found it knew that was the one place I had to be before boarding.

And I once left a library book in an AA seatback pocket. I got a phone call from them telling me where it was and asking what they should do with it. Since I was going to change planes again at the same airport on my return trip, I asked them to hold it and I'd pick it up. They did, and I did.

I've also lost things that I never got back, but there are a few bright spots out there.