For the source text click/tap here: Bava Kamma 102
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The braisa states: If someone gives money to his messenger (meaning partner, and they will split the profits) to buy for him wheat, and instead he buys for him barley, or vice versa, one braisa states that if they lost money, the lost money is from the portion of the messenger. If they gained money, the original sender gained. Another braisa states: If they lost, it is from the portion of the messenger. If they gained money, they split the profits. [This is a contradiction!]
The Gemara tries to reconcile the contradictory texts and notes that they laughed at it in the West (Eretz Yisrael), at the explanation of Rabbi Yoḥanan, stating a deviation by an agent from the terms of his assignment does not result in the acquisition of the item for the agent himself.
Rabbi Abbahu resolves the issue: The case of an agent who was assigned to purchase wheat and purchased wheat is different, as the agent is performing his assignment and, as such, he is like the customer, i.e., the one who appointed him, and it is as though the latter has purchased the grain himself.
This laughing at the scholars of Eretz Yisroel is found elsewhere in seas and allows us an exploration of the two Talmuds and the relative weight given to the Bavli and Boyarin’s tribute to his teacher Professor Shaul Lieberman and his scholarship on the Yerushalmi and Tosefta.