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Dimyat'a pirince giderken evdeki bulgurdan olmak (Lit. to be without bulgur at home when you go to Dimyat (Damietta) for rice…) -- Idiomatic meaning: to lose what one already has in the pursuit of what one presumes to be better...

The story…Once upon an Ottoman time, a rich Turkish rice-merchant set sail from Istanbul with a money-belt full of gold -- heading for Dimyat. There he planned to buy a large consignment of fine rice, which he could turn into great profit at home. In fact, he'd already begun spending the expected profit on credit -- which his moneylender had been pleased to advance.

Sadly, his ship was hijacked in the Mediterranean by an Arab pirate -- who stripped and robbed the poor rice-merchant clean, taking all the gold in his overstuffed money belt.

After he returned to Turkey, the rice-merchant was beset by 1,001 difficulties -- and had to declare bankruptcy. So he abandoned Istanbul and retreated to his hometown, Karaman, where at least he still had a few productive wheat fields. But, faced with growing financial problems, he had no choice but to surrender his entire crop to the local grain-merchant -- who set off with it for Istanbul where he reckoned that he could turn a greater profit. But on the way to Istanbul…

And, that winter…the poor rice-merchant's family suffered greatly, unable even to afford plain bulgur (a wheat by-product) for their own pitiful dining table. He had lost the simple pleasure of that 'ordinary' mealtime staple at home -- because of his pursuit of the fine rice of Dimyat, abroad. And a Turkish idiom was borne…

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Geçti Bor'un pazarI, sür essegi Nigde'ye… (Lit. The bazaar at Bor is over, drive the stupid donkey to Nigde) -- Idiomatic meaning: You missed your chance, it's too late to do anything (about it)…

The story…In the old days, the bazaar at Bor lasted a shorter time than most bazaars -- closing down in the mid-afternoon. That was because there was a much larger, busier bazaar on the same day in Nigde. And, if business was slow in Bor, the bazaar's merchants often took off early for the grander opportunity of Nigde -- not waiting even to mid-afternoon. This could pose a problem for late arriving customers, who might have to follow the merchants all the way to Nigde to buy their weekly goods -- or wait a week until the next bazaar in Bor. And a derisive phrase, to portray the late-comers, came into common use. "The Bor bazaar is over, drive the stupid donkey to Nigde," is what the wags would say to those villagers who came late to the Bor bazaar. And how your ears might ring if you had to hear it yourself !

A little ways north of Nigde is the village of Andabalis (Andaval). And this emerging idiom first came to be linked closely with its villagers -- though why that happened is not exactly clear. Since Bor is to the south of Nigde -- it's extremely unlikely that the Andabalisians would have ever gone anywhere near the Bor bazaar. Thus, they could hardly be late for it…But Andabalisians were often subjected to indignities of various kinds (due to their reported naivete and slow-wittedness). So perhaps they became linked to this derisive phrase merely because they fit the "personality profile." Whatever the reason, over time, the AndavallI idiom has settled into the Turkish language from that source.