A Hawke's Bay woman used Facebook to reunite a pair of tourists with their missing bag of money this week.

A Facebook post turned from a Christmas gift to a nightmare for one Hawke's Bay woman trying to reunite a bag of cash with its owners.

The woman found the bag containing $2800 lying in the gutter on Pakowhai Rd in Hastings on Monday, after she had stopped at a fruit and vegetable store.

"I never thought about keeping it," she said. "When I found the cash I thought, 'it probably belongs to a family who saved up all year'." That afternoon she posted a message on Facebook with an appeal to find the bag's owner. By Tuesday afternoon the messaged had been shared more than 700 times.

FACEBOOK The Facebook post that was shared more than 700 times.

Eventually it reached the bag's owners - a pair of young tourists working in Hawke's Bay.

She said they contacted her and described the bag along with the details on a printed recept inside the bag.

They were "over the moon" to have it returned after working hard to earn the money, she said.

Despite the positive resolution she said the responses she received through social media were overwhelming.

She said she was pleased to be able to return the money to its owners, but should have gone to the police rather than posting on Facebook.

"I just wanted to do something to return the money," she said.

"I didn't know the scope of Facebook and I had no idea how it would spread, I just can't get my head around it."

She received a number of negative comments and scary private messages which forced her to deactivate her Facebook page on Tuesday.

A police spokeswoman said if members of the public found lost money they should drop it into their local police station as soon as possible.

They should include details of when and where the money was found.

She said there were risks involved in trying to find the owners of lost property, especially money.

"It's far better to let police deal with it," she said.