3,343. Must One Deliver the Terumah?

Terumos 12:16

If terumah is given to a kohein and he finds other things in it, he may not keep those things. This is like theft because maybe someone put those things in the terumah intending to retrieve them later.

Terumos 12:17

A Yisroel need not “shlep” terumah from the granary to a city or from a wilderness to a settlement. Rather, the kohanim should go to the granaries and the Yisroelim give them the gifts there. If the kohanim didn’t go to the granary, the owner just separates the terumah and leaves it there. The Sages ruled that if there are wild or domesticated animals there that might eat the terumah and it’s unprotected, then the owner must trouble himself to bring it to the city. He may charge the kohein for delivering it. This enactment is because if the owner separated terumah and left it to be devoured by animals, it would be a desecration of God’s name.