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Needle in a Stack of Needles: Difference between revisions
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* Used by Jasdero and Devit in ''[[D.Gray-man]]'' while they were screwing with the exorcists on the Ark. During the initial fight, they dropped the key to the door leading deeper in- so Jasdevi materialized enough keys to cover the entire floor of the room. {{spoiler|However, Lavi has a [[Photographic Memory]] and eventually picked it out by the patterns of wear.}}
* This very phrase is uttered by Lust in the dub of the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' anime. In particular, she mentions it when she and Gluttony are looking for Dr. Marcoh's notes on how to create a Philosopher's Stone. His notes are in the form of an unidentified book. And the book is written in code so you can't tell just by reading it that it's about the Philosopher's Stone. And it's in the largest library in the entire country. But since Lust and Gluttony desire to keep anybody else from reading the note, rather then read it themselves, {{spoiler|[[Cutting the Knot|they settle the problem rather neatly by burning down the entire building, books and all.]]}}
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', for Ichigo's [[Training
* In one arc of [[Detective Conan]], a priceless pearl is hidden from a [[Phantom Thief]] by giving every guest to a party on a ship a replica. Of course, this being the [[Magic Kaito|Kaitou KID]], he finds it anyway, but still.
* And in [[Code Geass]] R2, Zero {{spoiler|bargains with the Britannians to be exiled instead of executed along with the rest of the Black Knights. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Cue every member of the Black Knights dressing up in Zero's trademark outfit. Since the Britannians couldn't figure out which one was the real Zero, they were forced to let them all go]].}}
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** Also from ''Indiana Jones'', a government agency hides the [[Artifact of Doom|Ark of the Covenant]] in a shipping crate, which is stored in an [[Secret Government Warehouse|immense room filled to the roof with identical shipping crates]]. There is an implication that there are many artifacts like the Ark in the warehouse, and that the Ark was not necessarily being "hidden" per se. Syfy's [[Warehouse 13]] seems to explore this a little more in-depth.
** In ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', Marion tries to hide inside a laundry basket, but gets discovered and is taken away inside the basket. Indy sees her, but eventually, he finds himself in a market square where dozens of people are carrying identical baskets. He frantically turns over every basket until he hears her shouting elsewhere.
* In ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]'', the lead robot character hides in a warehouse filled with robots, which was drawn from a similar short story in the original book ''[[I, Robot (literature)|I, Robot]]''. The critical difference between book and film enabled [[Cutting the Knot]] - where in the book the extra robot was a variant with only partially [["Three Laws"-Compliant]] (designed to permit humans to come to harm through inaction so they could work alongside humans in hazardous environments), the film had a {{spoiler|totally non-compliant robot hidden in the crowd - AKA one that freaked out when a [[Cowboy Cop]] started randomly shooting robots in the head.}}
** Given that the robots in question are intelligent, there is significant overlap with [[Lost in a Crowd]] - in both film and short story, it was the robot itself that decided to hide out amongst other, identical-looking robots (although the short story had the robot do so in response to a vague, unintentional order, rather than completely on its own initiative).
* In ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|ET the Extraterrestrial]]'', the title character, who is a cute but not very human alien lifeform, hides in a pile of stuffed animals.
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* In Connie Willies' ''[[To Say Nothing of the Dog]]'', Tossie's diary, which the heroes have been trying to get their hands on for most of the book, is revealed to have been hidden {{spoiler|in the library, "in amongst all those other books where no one would notice it"}}.
* In ''Winds of Fury'' of the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series, freshly minted Herald-Mage Elspeth leads a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] into the lands of their archenemy, Hardorn, in an attempt to assassinate the nation's leaders before their armies overrun Valdemar. They conceal their ''extremely'' out-of-place appearances by posing as members of a wandering carnival. They cite an "[[Hurricane of Aphorisms|ancient Shin'a'in proverb]]" in doing so -- "Where do you hide a red fish? In a pond full of red fish."
* [[Isaac Asimov]] uses this trope in his short story "Little Lost Robot" in the ''[[I, Robot (literature)|I, Robot]]'' collection. A robot told to "go lose yourself" by an angry engineer does just that, by hiding in a shipment of 62 other robots of the same model as itself, and who differ from the lost robot only in that the lost one was a variant which is only partially [["Three Laws"-Compliant]] (designed to permit humans to come to harm through inaction so they could work alongside humans in hazardous environments) and otherwise looks, sounds, and behaves identically to the robots in the shipment. Suffice it to say, Susan Calvin has quite the challenge on her hands in tracking him down - especially as the lost robot not only mimics other robots, but is clever enough to persuade the other robots to mimic ''him''. She finally pulls it off {{spoiler|only by forcing it to outsmart itself. Though the robots naturally protected humans, and the lost robot could disobey to permit humans to be harmed, and persuade other robots to make sacrifices for a future good, it couldn't make the other robots as capable as itself. The lost robot could tell lethal radiation from non-lethal due to experience, and is suckered by a IR hazard the others saw as gamma rays.}}
** This story is referenced in a scene of the movie "I, Robot" when Sonny pulls the same trick (but only makes it work for a minute or two).
* In one of the first cases ''[[Brother Cadfael|Cadfael]]'' investigates, a murder victim is left among a bunch of corpses of men the local lord hanged for treason, presumably in hope that nobody will count them.
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'''Reid:''' Exactly. We're looking for a ''particular'' needle in a pile of needles. }}
* Done at least once in ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'': The town is flooded with gossipy letters. Some are printed, some are written, some are typed; they're on all types of paper; and they are all mailed from Cabot Cove. In this case, {{spoiler|the letters were sent by the killer, who had been told by the victim that her friend who would mail a letter revealing their dirty dealings if anything happened to her. The killer inundated the town with mail, hoping the letter incriminating him would be taken as a joke}}.
* The tribble bomb in the ''[[Star Trek:
* Although ''[[Monk]]'' never did this in the main series, there is a case of this in the [[Expanded Universe]] novel ''Mr. Monk in Outer Space'' where a killer, dressed as a popular character from a TV show, shoots and kills the show's producer as he is arriving for a convention, then escapes into the convention center, vanishing because there are dozens of other people dressed in similar costumes to the killer's.
* In ''[[CSI]]'' there was an episode where a murder victim was put inside a body-farm: a place where bodies are put in a number of different positions/environments so people can learn how they decay. {{spoiler|It's also subverted as they immediately notice that it's out of place and not on record.}}
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* In Season 3 of ''[[Dexter]]'', after having killed a man in front of {{spoiler|Prado}}, Dexter lies to him, telling him he hid the body a foot underneath the soil... in a freshly-dug grave at a local cemetery.
{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Prado}}''': "Stroke of genius, man... hiding a dead body in a cemetery"}}
* Happens {{spoiler|by accident}} on ''[[Homicide: Life
* Rabbi Garfinkle explains on ''[[In Plain Sight]]'' that finding the needle is easy "If you are willing to look at each and every piece of straw." The rabbi has patiently spent years in a methodical search and successfully found one of Mary's witnesses. He tells her that witness protection works because "Criminals are lazy. That is why they are criminals. I on the other hand..."
* In one episode of ''[[MacGyver]]'', Mac is carrying a valuable Chinese artifact which he needs to get rid of in a hurry—so he finds a shop selling cheap replicas of the thing and puts it on the back of the shelf.
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* In the ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'' multiplayer game, there's an unlockable ability called "Morph", which, when used while stand in a crowd of people, will change all of them into duplicates of you.
* In ''[[Guild Wars]]'', the lair of the ancient dragon, Glint, is hidden inside a single grain of crystalline sand, in what is aptly known as the Crystal Desert. While it ''might'' be possible to find that grain and magic your way inside, finding a portal inside a specific ruin is much faster.
* ''[[Resident Evil
* At one point in ''[[Laura Bow]] : The Dagger of Amon Ra'', the stolen dagger is hidden in the museum gift shop in a row of replica daggers. You can tell it's the real one because it doesn't have "Made in Pittsburgh" engraved on it.
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[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Mystery Tropes]]
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