Не вешай лапшу на уши (Ne veshay lapshu na ushi)

Literally: Don't hang noodles on my ears

Example: “Не вешай мне лапшу на уши: я видел счёт.” — Don't try to pull the wool over my eyes; I've seen the bill.

English equivalent: To pull the wool over someone's eyes

Origin: No single theory is confirmed, and language reference sources themselves note that none fits perfectly. One traces it to sound-alike folk etymology with the older Russian verb oblaposhit', to swindle or con someone — the noodle (lapsha) image may have grown out of that phonetic resemblance rather than any deliberate original wordplay. A second reaches for criminal argot, where lapshit' and its variants lakshit' and lokshit' already meant "to deceive" or "to cheat someone at a game" in underworld slang. A third, playful theory imagines the logic directly: a con artist talks on and on, the listener's ears stay open and receptive the whole time, and by the time the deception (oblaposheny) is complete, it's as if noodles — lapsha — had been quite literally draped over those same ears. A fourth, considerably less credited theory claims the phrase arrived in Russia via Chinese merchants, though this account has far less support than the others.