Beat Bag: Difference between revisions

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|Geto Boys, "Mind's Playin' Tricks on Me" }}

Selling a "beat" bag is a form of the [[Short Con]] that involves representing a bogus product as a more valuable, but illegal product, such as oregano for marijuana, baking soda for heroin, or cubic zirconias for stolen diamonds.

Selling a '''"beat" bag''' is a form of the [[Short Con]] that involves representing a bogus product as a more valuable, but illegal product, such as oregano for marijuana, baking soda for heroin, or cubic zirconias for stolen diamonds.

This means that the buyer cannot report the scam to the police, because he doesn't dare admit he was trying to buy the illegal item in the first place. The main push on these is often that the deal has to go down fast, for cash, ''right now''.

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== [[Literature]] ==

* This apparently happens <s> a lot</s> all the time to Mr. Tulip in the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]''. "In a street where furtive people were selling Clang, Slap, Chop, Rhino, Skunk, Triplin, Floats, Honk, Double Honk, Gongers, and Slack, Mr. Tulip had an unerring way of finding the man who was retailing curry powder at what worked out as six hundred dollars a pound."

* In [[Holes]], X-Ray was arrested for selling drugs, but they turned out to be bags of chopped-up aspirin. Then he got arrested for selling aspirin without a pharmaceutical license.

* In ''[[Holes]]'', X-Ray was arrested for selling drugs, but they turned out to be bags of chopped-up aspirin. Then he got arrested for selling aspirin without a pharmaceutical license.

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=== Periodicals ===

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* Invoked in a "Clichéd TV Lines" competition in ''New York Magazine'' in the early 1970s, reprinted in the collection ''Maybe He's Dead'': [[Fingertip Drug Analysis|"Milk sugar!"]]

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

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== [[Music]] ==

* This comes up in the folk song [http://www.contemplator.com/england/qbrye.html Quare Bungle Rye.] Jack thinks he's getting smuggled whiskey, but the seller slips him a baby in a basket instead and runs off.

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== Periodicals ==

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* Invoked in a "Clichéd TV Lines" competition in ''New York Magazine'' in the early 1970s, reprinted in the collection ''Maybe He's Dead'': [[Fingertip Drug Analysis|"Milk sugar!"]]

== [[Web Comics]] ==

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[[Category:The Con]]

[[Category:This Is Your Index On Drugs]]

[[Category:Short Con]]

[[Category:~~Beat~~ ~~Bag~~]]

[[Category:This Is Your Index On Drugs]]