While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

8When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9”This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

Just looking at this from a Talmudic law perspective: items from the house of a leper can not be sold or used or given away, they must be destroyed because of contamination. What was called “leprosy” or “tz’raat” in scripture was some kind of infectious condition.