We show that the Patterson–Sullivan measure on the limit set of a geometrically finite Kleinian group with cusps can be recovered as a weak limit of sums of Dirac masses placed on an appropriate orbit of each parabolic fixed point. A corollary is a sharp asymptotic estimate for a natural counting function associated to a cuspidal subgroup. We also discuss the connection between the above counting and the Riemann hypothesis in some examples of arithmetical lattices.