Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Cheatyface.jpg|framed|link=
{{quote|''{{smallcaps|"[[Robo Speak|Statement]]: I have no idea, master. Cheating seems to be a relevant term only when one is caught in the act. Otherwise it is viewed as intelligence, no?"}}''|'''HK-47,''' ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]''}}
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This sometimes takes the form of an admonishment not to cheat on an upcoming game/test/whatever, which comes so out-of-the-blue that it can only be interpreted as an ''encouragement'' to cheat. A subtrope of [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]]. Compare [[Could Say It, But...]]. Take it further and you realize [[Real Life]] history is [[Written by the Winners]].
{{examples|These examples weren't cheating! You can't prove anything!}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Death Note]]'', Light Yagami claims that if Kira is caught, he's evil. However, if he isn't, he is justice.
* In the third chapter of [[Fullmetal Alchemist]], Ed transmutes waste into gold, claiming that: ''"If we don't get caught, we won't get caught."'' Immediately afterward, he subverts this by reversing the transmutation.
* In a very early ''[[Naruto]]'' episode, during the Chunin exams the ninjas-in-training are given a difficult written test with the unusual rule that they cannot be caught cheating more than four times. So, needless to say, all of the skilled students discreetly use their ninja skills to do so without getting caught. Which was, of course, the entire point. (They would have to pass
** This is further complicated by the idea of teamwork being thrown into the mix. If one person in the squad failed or got caught five times, the whole squad failed. If one person got none of them right (the questions were intended to be too hard for regular genin to be answered), the rest of the squad also failed.
*** {{spoiler|In the end, getting the test answers right really didn't matter. The test proctor was a torture expert, and each new rule was designed to mindscrew with the genin kids. Naruto passed despite leaving his entire paper blank, also passing a second [[Secret Test of Character]] which said that if they got the not yet handed out last question wrong (even though he had gotten none of the other questions right) they could never be anything but a genin, basically ending their career as a ninja. Ironically, because of the way the test was intended to be, Naruto actually cheated by being honest - you weren't supposed to leave the test blank. The instructor was impressed by his guts, though.}}
* Earlier in ''[[Soul Eater]]'', [[Highly-Visible Ninja|Black*Star]] tries to peep on Tsubaki while she's bathing, he being who he is, yells and gets a [[Amusing Injuries|shuriken in the forehead]]. The thing is Tsubaki wasn't mad at him spying her but at him not being able to conceal his presence.
* D'arby the Gambler, user of the Osiris Stand in ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'', has this as his motto. For example, it's not ''his'' fault that Polnareff didn't know that, when they were betting on what meat a cat would eat first, the cat belonged to D'arby (and thus D'arby could choose which piece would be eaten).
* The first rule of the Games Club in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'': Win at all costs. Including using marked cards, bribing your opponents, pulling a [[Twin Switch]]...
* ''[[The Legend of Koizumi]]''. It's practically understood that cheating is part of the game as long as you don't get caught. And sometimes, it's still not considered cheating even if you ''do'' get caught if you do it in an audacious enough manner, like when [[The Hero|Koizumi's]] effort in cheating {{spoiler|[[Incendiary Exponent|caused his entire body to be set ablaze]]}}.
** Getting caught, however, can be fatal {{spoiler|As Otto Skorzony finds out when Dubya catches his tileswapping trick.}}
* [[Toriko]]'s Gourmet Casino arc lives and dies on this trope. Coco's future-seeing abilities allow him to effortlessly win practically all of the casino's games. Livebearer, the arc's [[Big Bad]], on the other hand, runs a game that is designed to give him every advantage he can think of.
* ''[[Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?]]'': Hermes plays very fast and loose with the rules, especially in season 1 of the anime when he enters Dungeon (an act forbidden to gods), and in season 2 of the anime where {{spoiler|he connives to give Bell Cranel a protective amulet during the War Game}}, and later looks inside the package he delivers to Ishtar then {{spoiler|tells Bell about it later}}.
== Card Games ==▼
* Unhinged, one of the joke sets for ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has a card called [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=74306 Cheatyface], which you're allowed to put into play for free as long as your opponent doesn't catch you doing it.▼
** Particularly amusing when paired with Ashnod's Coupon (Target player gets you target drink). While they're in the kitchen, there is nothing stopping you from putting all 49 copies of the card you possess into play.▼
* A flare in the original version of [[Cosmic Encounter]] gives its owner a similar power: if you have the filch card in your hand, you can filch cards from the draw deck or discard pile, and reclaim your own destroyed ships, as long as nobody sees you do it. If you're caught, however, you have to put what you stole back, and an extra ship of yours is destroyed. The most recent remake includes this card as an optional variant.▼
* Steve Jackson Games' conspiracy-theory themed card game ''Illuminati'' has a set of "cheating" rules in which almost anything goes (e.g. stealing money from the bank, misstating the powers of your cards, etc) as long as you don't get caught. (If you ''do'' get caught, the only penalty is that you have to undo that specific cheating attempt.) It is recommended that you play this version of the game only with "''very'' good friends or people you will never see again."▼
* The entire premise of the card game known varyingly as Cheat, BS, or I Doubt It. You put down a certain number of cards in a group (such as two aces or three kings) into a pile while everyone else would watch you and either leave you be or call you out for cheating. The idea is to get rid of all your cards in your hand before anyone else does, and it is possible to cheat by dropping down cards you didn't call (such as saying you dropped two aces when they were really a 6 and a 9). If you are called out while you cheat, you have to pick up the whole pile for cheating, but if you ''weren't'' cheating when they called you out, ''they'' have to pick the pile up. It is very much possible to cheat without anyone calling you out on it so long as you don't make it painfully obvious (such as dropping 5 queens, or a card someone else has all 4 of), and in fact, required since passing is not allowed.▼
** People are divided as to whether or not you are allowed to cheat otherwise. One school of thought is that since it's the name of the game, you should cheat as much as possible by hiding cards or playing more cards than you declare so you can't be caught cheating. The other school allows only cheating in the predefined method.▼
* This is an explicit rule in ''[[Munchkin (game)|Munchkin]]''. It's to be expected in a game about [[Munchkin|munchkining]].▼
* In general, any card game that has a specific rule against cheating is really saying this trope. To catch someone cheating, you must accurately describe their cheating action, or be penalized yourself for a false accusation.▼
* In Euchre, there is a significant advantage to being the dealer. Normally, the deal passes to the left after each hand, but the dealer's partner (or in cutthroat, any player) may gather the cards and ''attempt'' to shuffle and deal. If they're caught ''before they finish,'' they have to pass the deck to the proper dealer, but once the deal is complete, the hand must be played.▼
* In UNO!, you are not allowed to play a Wild Draw Four card unless you have no cards in your hand of the color of the faceup card on the table. Attempt to do so, and you won't be penalized, unless another player calls you for it. (Which they sometimes do just to look at your hand.) Even better, the challenger can be penalized for an improper challenge.▼
== Film ==
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* In ''[[Star Trek]] II'', Kirk reveals that he rigged [[Unwinnable Training Simulation|the Kobayashi Maru]] test to make the scenario winnable... and got a commendation for "original thinking."
** In [[Star Trek (film)|the 2009 film]] the alternate Kirk was court-martialed. If the plot had not intervened, it is very possible he would have been expelled, which is standard practice for modern academic institutions. Presumably something similar happened to Kirk-Prime, but if he was being a bit less of an ass about the whole thing (and if he had some powerful friends), he might have gotten away with it.
*** The difference may have been due to the manner in which they cheated. Alternate-Kirk simply disabled the shields of the enemy vessels and destroyed them, while Kirk-Prime reprogrammed the enemy's behavior to respect the reputation he intended to build as captain such that they would allow him to proceed unmolested. So while Alternate-Kirk cheated in a way that he could plausibly have hidden and gotten away with entirely if not for the fact that the game was [[Unwinnable]], Kirk-Prime took [[Refuge in Audacity]].
* In ''[[Back to School]]'', Derek (Robert Downey Jr.), best friend of the main character's son, uses sunlight reflected from a mirror, and then an air horn, to distract divers from the opposing dive team, preventing them from making good dives so that his friend can win.
* In ''[[Ski School]]'', the "good guys" Ski team must beat the Big Bad and other innocent bystander competitors to stay on the slopes, so they pull shenanigans like pouring oil on the snow to make their competitors slip and fall, or have buxom ladies flash passing skiers to make their competitors slip and fall. High fives all around.
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Aladdin: I'm in trouble. }}
* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'': The Pirate Code is really more a set of "guidelines", or "suggestions." At least they are on the open seas; not so much when [[Keith Richards|Captain Teague]], Keeper of the Code is in the room with a loaded gun. Still some room for... Liberal interpretation, of course.
== Literature ==
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"So it's not a dirty trick if it's untraceable?"
"Correct, Ivan. You learn fast. Grandfather would have been...suprised." }}
* In [[The Hunger Games]], it is technically illegal to train children to participate in the Games and have them volunteer to take the place of whoever gets chosen by lottery. Regardless, the tributes from Districts 1, 2, and 4 are always what are called "Career Tributes". The Capitol seems [[Selective Obliviousness|to ignore this]] because it makes for a more entertaining show.
* In Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts' Empire trilogy, betrayal and assassination among rivals in the major Houses is almost never punished by the law unless the perpetrator was crass enough to be obvious about it. And being able to engineer a rival's demise by exploiting law and custom rather than just ignoring it will earn you the quiet admiration of your peers.
* The Drow (see Tabletop Games below) deserve a mention here as well, since R.A. Salvatore's [[The Dark Elf Trilogy|Drizzt]] books did a lot to codify that picture of their society.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Al Bundy says as much in an episode of ''[[Married... with Children]]'' where Al enters himself in an athletic competition for senior citizens. When he's standing victoriously on the podium and holding his medals, he says, "It's only cheating if you get caught."
* [[Porridge]] basically ''is'' this trope, with Fletcher delivering lines like:
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'''Fletcher''': [[With Due Respect|With respect]], Godber, we are all here for the ''same'' reason. ... We got caught. }}
* The trope name is spoken almost verbatim in ''[[Andromeda]]'' by Gaheris Rhade to [[The Captain|Hunt]] in a [[Flash Back]] when Dylan catches him cheating at [[Go]]. Rhade is visibly confused as to why Dylan is angry at him. Being a [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzschean]], he naturally assumes that everyone behaves that way, if they want to survive.
* In a ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' episode, Artie plays a game of [[Battleship (game)|Battleship]] with an [[
* Theoretically, anything a team on ''[[Scrapheap Challenge]]''/''[[Junkyard Wars]]'' brings back to their lot is theirs for keeps. Yeah, right ... unless the other team steals it, in which case the hosts and thieves have a laugh at the victimized team's expense.
* Jeff Winger on ''[[Community]]'' runs basically the entire spectrum of amorality tropes. One of the more [[Egregious]] examples is him creating fake classes to earn credits.
== Music ==
* "Tweeter and the Monkey Man", by the Traveling Wilburys. "Janet told him many times, 'It was * you* to * me* who taught in Jersey everything's legal as long as you don't get caught."
* Tool's song "Jerk Off" summarizes the mentality explicitly: "If consequences dictate our course of action then it doesnt matter what's right, it's only wrong if you get caught"
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* Virtually half of the way the whole show works, especially with the manager or tag team partner getting in a few shots while the [[Easily-Distracted Referee|ref's back is turned]]. Mostly done by [[
** Wrestlers can even do this by themselves if they can get the referee to turn his back. I mean, sure, the ref looked away for two seconds and now one of the wrestlers is lying unconscious on the mat, with a steel chair next to him - but he didn't SEE it, so he can't just go blaming the only other guy in the ring, can he?
** [[Eddie Guerrero]] lampshaded it ("I Lie, I Cheat, I Steal"), and later in his career took to inverting it (e.g. by hitting ''the mat'' with a steel chair, tossing it to his opponent, then playing dead and winning by DQ, which worked even though normally refs only call a DQ if they ''see'' the illegal hit).
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* One laughable subversion of this was at Starcade 1999 in WCW, during a 'Master of the Powerbomb' match between [[Kevin Nash]] and Sid Vicious. In the storyline, the match could only be won by, surprisingly, Powerbombing one's opponent. After the [[Glass Jaw Referee|referee had been bumped]], Vicious had powerbombed Nash and various outside interference had muddied the waters, Nash attempted to powerbomb Vicious, but for whatever reason was unable to and simply left Vicious laying in the ring. When the referee finally awakened, Nash told the official 'I stuck him!' The referee, amazingly, believed him (!) and awarded the match to Nash.
== Tabletop Games ==
* One of the lessons taught to children by playing ''[[Monopoly]]'' is that you only have to pay rent if the person who owns the property realizes you're there.▼
* If a non-word is played in ''Scrabble'', but the next player takes their turn before anyone notices, the word stands.▼
* Actively part of the fluff in ''[[Blood Bowl]]''. Refs can be bribed to not call illegal play, may not see the illegal play, or may be too afraid of the crowd's reaction to call anything.▼
===
▲* Unhinged, one of the joke sets for ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has a card called [https://web.archive.org/web/20090428155326/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=74306 Cheatyface], which you're allowed to put into play for free as long as your opponent doesn't catch you doing it.
▲** Particularly amusing when paired with Ashnod's Coupon (Target player gets you target drink). While they're in the kitchen, there is nothing stopping you from putting all 49 copies of the card you possess into play.
▲* A flare in the original version of [[Cosmic Encounter]] gives its owner a similar power: if you have the filch card in your hand, you can filch cards from the draw deck or discard pile, and reclaim your own destroyed ships, as long as nobody sees you do it. If you're caught, however, you have to put what you stole back, and an extra ship of yours is destroyed. The most recent remake includes this card as an optional variant.
▲* [[Steve Jackson Games]]' conspiracy-theory themed card game ''Illuminati'' has a set of "cheating" rules in which almost anything goes (e.g. stealing money from the bank, misstating the powers of your cards, etc) as long as you don't get caught. (If you ''do'' get caught, the only penalty is that you have to undo that specific cheating attempt.) It is recommended that you play this version of the game only with "''very'' good friends or people you will never see again."
▲* The entire premise of the card game known varyingly as Cheat, BS, or I Doubt It. You put down a certain number of cards in a group (such as two aces or three kings) into a pile while everyone else would watch you and either leave you be or call you out for cheating. The idea is to get rid of all your cards in your hand before anyone else does, and it is possible to cheat by dropping down cards you didn't call (such as saying you dropped two aces when they were really a 6 and a 9). If you are called out while you cheat, you have to pick up the whole pile for cheating, but if you ''weren't'' cheating when they called you out, ''they'' have to pick the pile up. It is very much possible to cheat without anyone calling you out on it so long as you don't make it painfully obvious (such as dropping 5 queens, or a card someone else has all 4 of), and in fact, required since passing is not allowed.
▲** People are divided as to whether or not you are allowed to cheat otherwise. One school of thought is that since it's the name of the game, you should cheat as much as possible by hiding cards or playing more cards than you declare so you can't be caught cheating. The other school allows only cheating in the predefined method.
▲* This is an explicit rule in ''[[Munchkin (game)|Munchkin]]''. It's to be expected in a game about [[
▲* In general, any card game that has a specific rule against cheating is really saying this trope. To catch someone cheating, you must accurately describe their cheating action, or be penalized yourself for a false accusation.
▲* In Euchre, there is a significant advantage to being the dealer. Normally, the deal passes to the left after each hand, but the dealer's partner (or in cutthroat, any player) may gather the cards and ''attempt'' to shuffle and deal. If they're caught ''before they finish,'' they have to pass the deck to the proper dealer, but once the deal is complete, the hand must be played.
▲* In UNO!, you are not allowed to play a Wild Draw Four card unless you have no cards in your hand of the color of the faceup card on the table. Attempt to do so, and you won't be penalized, unless another player calls you for it. (Which they sometimes do just to look at your hand.) Even better, the challenger can be penalized for an improper challenge.
=== Tabletop RPG ===
* One of the scenario ideas in the ''[[GURPS]]'' setting book ''GURPS IOU'', set in a very peculiar university, involves the final exam for the Advanced Cheating class. The questions are just random obscure trivia; the actual test is finding a good way to cheat in it. If you get caught, you fail. If you don't even ''try'' to cheat, you'll be expelled for "terminal cluelessness."
** The difficulty to this being, of course, proving that someone did ''not'' cheat.
* Drow from ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. Their entire ''legal system'' is based around this trope. As an example, in the city of Menzoberranzan if a Drow Noble House wants to eliminate another Noble House they must do it in a way that leaves no member of the eliminated house alive, since only the attacked house has the right of accusation against the attacking house, and are the only ones allowed to witness. Anyone else who happens to see the attack are merely "spectators." If even one member of the attacked house is alive to accuse the attackers, the attacking family will, according to the law, be eradicated. If no one is left alive to witness, everyone will act as if the now deceased house [[Unperson|never existed in the first place]], except for vaguely praising the attackers for a successful raid.
** In ''[[Drowtales]]'', one of the rules of the [[Wizarding School|School of Magic]] is "If you attack another student, you must kill and dispose of the body."
** After Drizz't Do'Urden abandoned his House and that House subsequently lost the favor of Lolth, it was annihilated by House Baenre, the First House of Menzoberranzan. However, not only Drizz't, but his brother Dinin and sister Vierna survived the massacre, being taken in by the Bregan Daerthe mercenaries. When Dinin asks Jarlaxle if he'd rescued them because of their claim against the Baenre, Jarlaxle basically tells him, "Pssh. [[Sarcasm Mode|Yeah, like that'll ever happen]]".
*** So House Baerne is cheating the rule that says under what circumstances it's permissible to cheat?
**** Presumably, the other seven ''would'' have a perfect pretext to unite and get rid of Baenre if survivors brought it before the Council. The hard part is to live long enough to do it, of course, and preferably stay alive after the deed as well. Another issue is whether one remains a noble and can make a claim if officially accepted as a merchant clan or mercenary company member, like Jarlaxle (Baenre himself). After all, his stand-in Kimmuriel Oblodra is the last from a punished House, but isn't targeted more than anyone in his position would be.
**** At that point in time, House Baenre is the First House because it's easily more powerful than any one (actually quite likely two and possibly more) of its rival Houses and enjoys the full favor of Lolth. [[
* ''[[Paranoia]]'' officially prohibits players from even ''knowing'' the rules. It then acknowledges that the players will read them anyway. To provide a "don't get caught" aspect, ''summary execution'' of a character is recommended if the player tries to [[Metagame]] (although with five backup clones, this is more a [[Death Is Cheap|warning]] than a [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies|bolt of purple lightning]]).
** That information was outside your security clearance. Please report for termination. [[Dissonant Serenity|Have a pleasant daycycle.]] [[The Computer Is Your Friend]].
** On the other hand, if the rulebook also includes a pre-written mission, then the prohibition on players reading the mission is clearly labeled [[Sincerity Mode|"no, really, this time we really mean it!"]]
* The Barathi society of ''[[Swashbucklers
▲* One of the lessons taught to children by playing ''[[Monopoly]]'' is that you only have to pay rent if the person who owns the property realizes you're there.
▲* If a non-word is played in ''Scrabble'', but the next player takes their turn before anyone notices, the word stands.
▲* Actively part of the fluff in ''[[Blood Bowl]]''. Refs can be bribed to not call illegal play, may not see the illegal play, or may be too afraid of the crowd's reaction to call anything.
▲* The Barathi society of ''[[Swashbucklers Of The 7 Skies]]'' has a strong vein of this, matched with extreme legalism (they invented lawyers) and the cultural practice of Vendetta. If you get away with it, it's considered a brilliant piece of politicking to be praised and emulated whenever possible... but if you are caught, then there's a fair chance you and everyone you love will "regrettably drown" well away from water.
== Video Games ==
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* In ''[[America's Army]] 3'', during Combat Lifesaving training, you are specifically told several times that no cheating or talking is allowed. This doesn't stop you at all from asking the student beside you for answers to the test and getting a perfect score.
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', Eglamore's [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=162 advice to Antimony] was not exactly what one'd expect from the teacher grounding a student. Annie initially criticizes this advice, but she has no trouble following it later. Of course, [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=552 his company in their time used to do the same]...
{{quote|'''Eglamore''': We have rules for a reason. For your safety. And if you're going to break them, you should try harder to not get caught.}}
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* Several of the characters in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' view all rules as these, including Captain Tagon. Petey, while generally benevolent, both loves underhanded methods himself and once managed to get Toughs off the hook without confronting human governments by eagerly agreeing they are less than law-abiding, but making them drop all charges because U.N.S. doesn't want him to [[Revealing Coverup|publish as part of the extradition process the very facts they tried to cover up]].
* [[Megatokyo]]: [http://megatokyo.com/strip/1132 Trying to convince himself.]
== Western Animation ==
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*** And to top it off, he continually referenced [[Take That|Bill Belichek and the 2007 Patriots]], claiming that the moral of that situation was ''not'' "Don't cheat" - but rather "If you got to where you were by cheating, ''keep cheating''!"
* Megatron once tried doing this against Optimus Prime in an episode of ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]''; he challenges Optimus to a duel of honor, with the loser exiling themselves, only to use a machine to transfer his underlings' powers into him and sending the Constructicons out to destroy the Autobots' computer, so it wouldn't be able to warn them of the duplicity. It doesn't work, in the end, but Optimus [[What an Idiot!|did completely miss the obvious signs of cheating on Megs' part during the battle]].
== Real Life ==
* [[Water Polo]] is rife with this behavior.
* Sparta liked this trope:
** As a rite of passage [[The Spartan Way]], each Spartan boy would be denied enough food to survive, forcing them to steal from the Helots. Stealing was still illegal, however, so if the boy was careless enough to get caught, he would be punished mercilessly.
** For soldiers, the same applied to having sex with your wife - the men lived together in barracks and were "forbidden" to go home. The idea was that if you had to break the rules to sleep with your wife, you'd take it a lot more seriously. Sparta always needed more sons.
* [[Truth in Television]], for the [http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/GRG_and_the_Mystery_of_the_High_Test_Scores.aspx hiring test] for a certain spy agency.
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** Japan was also building 8-inch gun turrets that didn't have ships to go with them, ostensibly as spare parts for their heavy cruisers. In actuality, those 15-gun light cruisers were always intended to have their 6-inchers replaced by 8-inchers as soon as Japan could get away with it. And those cruisers were ''also'' already weighing in at 12,500 tons rather than the official 10,000.
** Similarly, the Italians relied heavily on outright cheating to bypass the treaty, but turned out to just not be as good at it as the Japanese. Prior to [[World War II]], other nations' naval officials were astonished at how Italy managed to built cruisers that were a good 50% faster than comparable ships of other nations. It turned out, the way Italy managed that was to send the ships on their shakedown cruises without carrying such minor items as gun turrets, thus making them come in (barely) below the 10,000 ton limit. In actual combat conditions, the added weight from actually carrying weapons meant that Italy's ships, far from the speed demons they seemed to be pre-war, were actually ''slower'' than their British and American counterparts.
* Rules and laws in general are meaningless unless enforced. Breaking a rule, leaving no evidence that a rule was broken, and not getting caught in the act is as good as obeying that rule (unless, of course, the rule/law was put in place because of the long term concequences of breaking it. [[Too Dumb to Live|Or for your own safety.]]).
** Examples are Third World countries where laws are often similar to those in developed nations, but since law enforcement tends to be weak/corrupt only a minority of offenders is arrested, sometimes selectively.
* [[Two Words]]: Parking meters.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty]]
▲[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
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