For the source text click/tap here: Chagigah 26
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Our MISHNA states : In the case of amei ha’aretz tax collectors who entered a house to collect items for a tax, and similarly thieves who returned the vessels they had stolen, they are deemed credible when they say: We did not touch the rest of the objects in the house, and those items remain pure. And in Jerusalem all people, even amei ha’aretz, are deemed credible with regard to sacrificial food throughout the year, and during a pilgrimage Festival they are deemed credible even with regard to teruma.
The tax collectors are amei haaretz and since they enter the house to collect something in lieu of taxes we must be concerned that they touched the things in the house and therefore everything is impure.
(This halacha is only in respect to kodesh, but not for terumah.) The Mishna continues: In Yerushalayim, the am haaratzim are believed regarding the tahara of kodesh, but not for terumah. During the festival, they are believed even for terumah.
The Gemara points out a contradiction between the Mishnah here and the Mishnah in Taharos. The Mishnah here states that tax-collectors (Gaba'im) or thieves (Ganavim) who entered a house are believed to say that they did not touch anything (and the items in the house are Tahor). The Mishnah in Taharos (7:6), however, states that if tax-collectors entered a house, all of the contents of the house are Tamei, which implies that the tax-collectors are not believed to say that they did not touch anything.
We explore the history of the tax collector in antiquity and how Jews were vilified in medieval Europe (invited by local authorities to perform very few trades) for their role as collectors
leading to antisemitic tropes and pogroms.