Barcha Tales: "Keep the Evil Away"

A businessman would do barcha (barcaa) at a friends place regularly. When he was finished chewing he would always have some extra jimaa (khat) left over which he would take with him and throw in the garbage. This surprised some the guests, so one day one of them asked him "why do you throw away perfectly good jimaa? Why don't you just give it to somebody else?"

The businessman replied "..and why would I willingly create enemies for myself? If I give them my jimaa today..tomorrow they will come to me and say "where is my jimaa?". As if I had taken something away from them. Therefore I prefer to throw away the left over and keep the evil away from me."

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