Can you explain the incident where Sai Baba ground wheat and what happened to the flour?

In a curious incident described in Chapter 1, Sai Baba, a detached saint with no possessions, began grinding wheat in the mosque. This act puzzled onlookers, but four women from the village ran to help him. After they had ground a measure of wheat, the women, driven by greed, assumed the flour was for them and began to divide it. Baba, who had been silent, became angry and scolded them, asking if they were taking their 'father's property?' He commanded them to take the flour and throw it all on the village boundary. The women, though humiliated, obeyed. This act was not what it seemed; the true reason, which was to drive away an epidemic, was revealed later.