Megillah 27B

חבר עיר, אבל יש שם חבר עיר ⁠— תינתן לחבר עיר. וכל שכן דעניי דידי ודידכו עלי סמיכי.

town scholar supervising the handling of the community’s needs, in the town in which the charity was collected. However, if there is a town scholar there, the money should be given to the town scholar, and he may use it as he sees fit. Since, in this case, the money had been given to Rav Huna, the use of the money should be up to his discretion. Rav Huna added: And all the more so in this instance, as both my poor in my town and your poor in your town rely upon me and my collections of charity. Rav Huna was also in charge of distributing charity for the surrounding area. It was certainly proper to leave the money with him, so that he could distribute it among all those in need.

מתני׳ אין מוכרין את של רבים ליחיד, מפני שמורידין אותו מקדושתו, דברי רבי מאיר. אמרו לו: אם כן אף לא מעיר גדולה לעיר קטנה.

Mishnah: They may not sell a sacred object belonging to the community to an individual, even if the object will still be used for the same purpose, due to the fact that by doing so they downgrade its degree of sanctity, as an item used by fewer people is considered to have a lower degree of sanctity than one used by many; this is the statement of R' Meir. The Rabbis said to him: If so, by your logic, it should also not be permitted to sell a sacred object from a large town to a small town. However, such a sale is certainly permitted, and therefore it must also be permitted to sell such an object to an individual.