lure mice with a cat
Baiting a mouse with a beaver, an idiom, means to catch a mouse and use a cat as bait. It's a metaphor for things that don't work.
source
According to the book of Shang Jun - agricultural war, "if I don't seek to move on the basis of goods, then I will not hope for it, just as I bait the cat."
explain
A beaver is a cat.
words whose meaning is similar
To kill a rat with a beaver
usage
It is a metaphor for the failure of things.
Chinese PinYin : yǐ lǐ ěr shǔ
lure mice with a cat
Strong branches but weak roots. qiáng zhī ruò běn
enforce justice on behalf of Heaven. tì tiān xíng dào
suffering from both poverty and sickness. pín bìng jiāo qīn
sharpen one 's spear only before going into battle. lín zhèn mó qiāng