___ change (a measly amount)

CHUMP

Think of a slang term for someone who’s easily fooled, often used in phrases about being taken advantage of in small deals.

This clue plays on the phrase "chump change," which means a very small or insignificant amount of money. The blank asks for a word that fits before "change" to complete that expression, and "chump" is the right term—it’s slang for someone easily taken advantage of, but here it just emphasizes how little the amount is. The wordplay relies on knowing the idiom, where "chump" isn’t about a person but about trivial cash.