Comment 1 for bug 152325

Workaround:

1) create empty directory 'temp'
2) Extract contents of deb manually, something like
dpkg-deb -x /var/cache/apt/archives/kdebase-data_4%3a3.5.8-0ubuntu1_all.deb temp
3) Then copy over the file you need
sudo cp temp/etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged/kde-essential.menu /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged/

I really don't know why 'dpkg --unpack' and 'aptitude reinstall' are not capable of doing this!