Take two droppers, put them facing each other, put items in one of the droppers. Place a lever on every side of the dropper you can, it will not work. Now try putting the lever on the other dropper, now it works. But you now have the same problem just the items switched droppers
Since the lever is on the dropper, you're powering both of them. The first dropper will transfer the item to the other, and since it's powered, it will transfer it back.