lessers were advanced from the status of much lessers when and if they accomplished three requirements : they deposited an adequate sum of american dollars into the personal account of the head lesser ; they did a really big favor for the big guy , like recruiting a north korean crazy nuke scientist to come and work in one of the reactors for a while ; and they found a hole in the economic sanctions blockade that allowed a shipment of some cultural necessity , toilet paper , say , to slip through and fill up the shelves of the city shops .