Procrustean solution

Adjusting the facts to suit the situation. In Greek mythology, Procrustes (his name meant “stretcher”) lived in a roadside house in which he invited travelers for a meal and a night's rest. The guests stayed in a bed whose length, according to Procrustes, exactly matched anyone who slept in it. And it did—after the host stretched a smaller guest on a rack or chopped the legs off a taller guest until he fit the bed. This practice ended only when the hero Theseus killed Procrustes by giving him a dose of his own medicine. Someone who alters the facts by, for example, overestimating or underreporting data is said to offer a Procrustean solution.