The Lemon Squeezers

Nimbu Nichod नींबू निचोड़ (Lemon Squeezer) is a vintage Hindi idiom which is used for a person who contributes something very minor or trivial to a task or project and then claims to be an equal contributor or partner. It is also used to describe “freeloaders” or “parasites.” The idiom is made up of Hindi noun नींबू nīmbū (lemon) and the verb nichoṛnā निचोड़ना (to squeeze, to press, to string).

In the folklore, people associate this idiom with the following story:

During the Mughal period in the city of Lucknow, some people avoided working and lived off the charity of others. They came up with a very clever scheme to get free meals everyday. These individuals would walk around the city’s inns (सराय Sarai) and guesthouses with a lemon (नींबू nīmbū) and a small knife (छुरी churī) in their pockets. Whenever they saw a traveler preparing to eat, they would strike up a conversation. Eventually, they would steer the topic toward food and insist that “a meal is completely tasteless without a lemon.” The traveler would agree, saying, “That is true, but where would I go looking for a lemon in a land away from home (pardes परदेस)?”

Upon hearing this, the scammer would immediately pull a lemon and knife from his pocket and present to the gullible traveller. Then, the scammer would take the lemon, squeeze it onto traveller’s food (for example khichdi or Biryani). Out of gratitude, the traveller would politely invite the “the lemon squeezer” to join him in the meal.

The “Lemon Squeezer” would be waiting for exactly this moment. He would reply, “Well, food must have been prepared at my home too, but how can I decline your kind invitation?” He would then sit down and eat to his heart’s content.

In this way, by the grace of a single lemon, the “lemon squeezers” [नींबू निचोड़ nīmbū nichoṛ] managed to get a sumptuous meal every day without paying a rupee.

References:
Satsang Mahima, Swami Akhandanandji Saraswati, https://archive.org/details/NcRm_shrimad-bhagavat-gita-missing-pages-sasta-sahitya-mandal/Shrimad