chop sticks
v.— «The practice is called “chopping sticks.”…Once a week policemen head out to a construction site, round up 15 or 20 people for possession of false documents, and—presto!—he has chopped enough sticks to meet his quota.» —“Chopping Sticks Beats Solving Crime” by Carl Schrek Moscow Times (Russia) May 20, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What kind of book do people ask for most often in prison? Romance novels? No. The Bible? No. The most requested books by far are … dictionaries! A number of volunteer organizations gather and distribute used dictionaries to help inmates with...
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...