A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

Recent entries:
“Online flirting is all fun and games until someone buys a plane ticket” (5/27)
“Only in America can you get arrested for feeding the homeless & be sentenced to community service” (5/27)
“In Texas, the shortest distance between two points is likely under construction” (5/27)
“New York is the only town where the shortest distance between two points is under construction” (5/27)
Entry in progress—BP (5/26)
More new entries...

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Entry from March 05, 2010
“You don’t put robbers to work in a bank”

Entry in progress—B.P.

Bartleby.com
Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations.  1989
NUMBER: 1588
AUTHOR: Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
QUOTATION: Will one of you gentlemen tell me in what civilized country of the earth there are important government boards of control on which private interests are represented? Which of you gentlemen thinks the railroads should select members of the Interstate Commerce Commission?
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to WOODROW WILSON, at a meeting of bankers and the president shortly before he asked Congress to enact legislation creating a Federal Reserve System.—Carter Glass, An Adventure in Constructive Finance, chapter 7, p. 116 (1927, reprinted 1975).
This appears to be the origin of what is frequently quoted as “You don’t put robbers to work in a bank.”
SUBJECTS: Regulation

Amazon.co.uk
You don’t put robbers to work in a bank.
Decorated Mouse Pad
by SHOPZEUS

Google News Archive
17 March 1960, Sarasota (FL) Journal, “Broadway Beat with Walter Winchell,” pg. 14, col. 4:
Would you hire a bank-robber to work in a bank?

Google Groups: alt.quotaions
Newsgroups: alt.quotations
From: Grace McGarvie
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 15:45:52 GMT
Local: Fri, Jul 26 2002 9:45 am
Subject: Re: banks?

You don’t put robbers to work in a bank.  American Proverb

13 February 2009, The Mirror (London): 
THERE is an old American proverb that says “You don’t put robbers to work in a bank” it’s just a pity our buffoon of a Finance Minister never heard it.

New Europe
Down with the bankers, loan sharks who swim on the land
Author: Andy Dabilis
21 February 2010
(...)
An American proverb once held that “You don’t put robbers to work in a bank,” but that’s where they are now. And not just in the United States.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityBanking/Finance/Insurance • (0) Comments • Friday, March 05, 2010 • Permalink