FFVI: Brave New World

My partner used them to sort of hammer home the point that non-human enemies aren't worth stealing from (whether anything is worth stealing from is something we've sort of been struggling with). They're a step in the right direction; originally, he just had the target kill Locke.

You can trade them in at the coliseum for what were formerly super balls, which is the only way to get them now.

The gum pods themselves are a reference to Dragon Warrior IV, where the one you found was completely useless and sold for a whopping 1 gold. Evidently, the item was called horse manure in the Japanese version, and the censors changed it to gum pod.