Masechet (tractate) Avodah Zarah (idol worship), Perek (chapter) Gimel (three), Mishnah Yud (ten). We'll elaborate more in the next Perek, but a non-Jew actually has the ability to remove the status of idol worship from a figure. He could nullify the Avodah Zarah from it, and it would lose its forbidden status. Then a Jew is allowed to benefit from it. A Jew could never nullify the status of Avodah Zarah. Only a non-Jew could do this. Here we'll talk about how a non-Jew could remove the forbidden status of an Asherah tree (sacred tree) and allow a Jew to benefit from it.
Mishnah says: If the non-Jew cut off the dry twigs or its moist twigs for his own use, he wanted to do something with it. Let's say he wanted to light a fire. So he's doing it not for the sake of the tree, to beautify the tree, but because he wants to make use of the item. Or he removed a stick or a branch from it. He took it out of it. Or even a leaf. He removed it. He diminished it. He nullified it. He no longer considers it to be an idol. He scraped the Asherah tree down in order to beautify it. So he's taking some of it away, but he's doing it to enhance the look of the object. It stays problematic. It stays Asurah (forbidden) because he didn't do any act of nullification. But if it wasn't for its own sake, let's say he wanted to actually use the scrapings of the object, then the idol becomes permitted, because if he's using it for his own sake, it shows that he no longer considers it to be an idol.