Who would have fallen?

[Lalwendë]

And yet the most horrible thing about the way the Ring works is that if you were Faramir or Aragorn and you knew that you ought not to pick it up, you would still not be able to leave it be. Because you would know the risk in leaving it where it was.

What would you do? Guard it and send a colleague to get help? Then you would run the risk of a weaker person coming to the rescue and just taking it. Or you could indeed just walk away, but gnawing away at you would be the knowledge that you had left this Ring lying around where anyone could find it.

The only way it can be left is if it lies somewhere it is unlikely to be discovered. But where would this be? It lay in the depths of the Anduin for centuries and it was still found. And some knew it was there and tried to find it as they were so interested in it. Then it lay under the Misty Mountains and even there it was found.