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Carpet. The first recorded use of carpet for a prison sentence comes from the book The Mark of the Broad Arrow by “No 77”, published in 1903. He suggests that the word was then current prison slang for a six-months' sentence, with the usual term for a three-month one being drag.
Herein, what is a carpet in Cockney slang?
Carpet is Cockney slang for 3.
Keeping this in consideration, why is 300 called a carpet?
carpet = three pounds (£3) or three hundred pounds (£300), or sometimes thirty pounds (£30). The term has since the early 1900s been used by bookmakers and horse-racing, where carpet refers to odds of three-to-one, and in car dealing, where it refers to an amount of £300.
The term carpet comes from Old French carpite. One derivation of the term states that the French term came from the Old Italian carpita, from the verb "carpire" meaning to pluck. The meaning of the term "carpet" shifted in the 15th century to refer to floor coverings.