History Main / GreedMakesYouDumb

** While Scrooge [=McDuck=] tries to not become an example of this trope (and does not always succeeds, usually when [[RuleOfFunny it would be funnier]] -- witness the many times he assigns Donald Duck to do something because he literally pays him cents and Donald… well, "[[WalkingDisasterArea who gets stuck with all of the bad luck?]]" and all), his clan has a long history of prioritizing being skinflints over practicality (such as one who declared war, and not only did not paid his troops but only bought three arrows for each archer. When his ghost appears in ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'', he not only shows no regret about said decision getting him [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abandoned by his troops mid-battle]] and killed, he is actually proud that Scrooge will surpass ''him'' in greed).

There are a number of ways that greed can harm rather than improve profits; a villain's scheme to enrich themselves might end up failing because the villain focuses on short-term profit without regard for long-term costs or risks. A [[TheScrooge cheapskate]] who tries to save money by CuttingCorners might end up losing money due to lack of quality on their products causing fewer people to buy them or suffer lawsuits from lack of safety testing. A [[CutLexLuthorACheck criminal who could become wealthy legitimately]] might get themselves arrested or sued because their greed caused them to commit crimes rather than stick to the law. A GetRichQuickScheme that could be a profitable business venture ends up being a failure due to the schemer's impatience when it comes to making money.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': One episode has Team Rocket plotting to steal four different Eeveelutions, each of which is extremely valuable. They manage to escape with three out of the four, but Jessie insists on going back to steal the fourth one. As a result, the good guys are able to take back the Eeveelutions, leaving Team Rocket with nothing.

* Mentioned as backstory in [[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Captain Vorpatril's Alliance]]. The brothers Vormercier start an embezzlement operation stealing and selling surplus military equipment slated for destruction. This works, so they promptly steal and sell more. Apparently never having heard of "quit while you're ahead," they eventually get caught when one of their sales is held up by a fleet inspection. The resulting complications end up introducing main characters Ivan and Tej to each other.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': The Beagle Boys can come off as this for constantly going after Scrooge's Money Bin; despite the fact they have shown themselves to be {{Not So Harmless Villain}}s when robbing people other than Scrooge and the fact that a number of them possess college degrees that they could use to earn an earnest living, they insist on trying, and failing, to rob Scrooge despite the countless failures they've suffered all out of a desire for a big score.

* Mentioned as backstory in [[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Captain Vorpatril's Alliance]]. The brothers Vormercier start an embezzlement operation stealing and selling surplus military equipment slated for destruction. This works, so they promptly steal and sell more. Apparently never having heard of "quit while you're ahead," they eventually get caught when one of their sales is held up by a fleet inspection.

* ''Film/TheMummy1999'': Beni Gabor combines this with DeathByMaterialism; he manages to escape the city of Hamunaptra with vast quantities of treasure but decides to go back for more. By doing so, he inadvertently activates a trap causing the city to sink into the sand taking all of the treasure with it and trapping him inside the treasure room where moments later he's EatenAlive by scarab beetles in a truly KarmicDeath. To add insult to injury, Rick O'Connell and Evelyn escape from Hamunaptra and later use the treasure Beni took to buy a mansion in London.

* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "WesternAnimation/OneFroggyEvening" is about a man who finds a singing, dancing frog and immediately dreams of making lots of money off his discovery. Unfortunately, all his attempts to do so fail because the frog won't perform for anyone other than him. By the end, he's left penniless and homeless, eventually leaving the frog back where he found it.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Nearly every VillainOfTheWeek does this twice. First, even though they're already rich, they try to get even richer by hurting innocent people, which attracts the attention of the Leverage crew. Then the Leverage crew destroys them by playing on their greed, often causing them to lose everything [=and/or=] end up in prison

* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'': In "Judgment of Corruption," Gallerian Marlon, a corrupt judge, dies when his house is burned down by an angry mob in retribution for taking a bribe to declare a war criminal innocent. He comes before the Master of the Hellish Yard, who says that she will let him go to heaven if he gives all his money to her. He says, "I will never hand over my fortune to the likes of you," and is cast down into hell.

* ''Literature/AesopsFables'' covered this at least twice:

** ''The Dog And His Reflection'': A dog carrying a bone sees his reflection in a pond and thinks that he would like to have the "other dog"'s bone as well. He opens his mouth to grab it, only to drop the bone he is carrying, leaving him with none.

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* ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'': Oscar combines this trope with GamblingRuinsLives; he's in deep debt to TheMafia as a result of countless failed {{Get Rich Quick Scheme}}s. His friend Angie gives him a pearl that can be sold in order to pay back the money he owes, but rather than just pay the money back, he decides to bet it on a (allegedly) rigged seahorse race. Unsurprisingly he not only loses his money but also almost ends up dying for his idiocy.

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS6E8PattyCaperPlanktonsRegular Patty Caper]]" [[spoiler:he steals the Krabby Patty secret ingredient in order to save ''$1.99'' and frames Spongebob, ''his only fry cook'', to get away with it. Even if Mr. Krabs did get away with his scheme, [[PyrrhicVictory he would have gone out of business because Spongebob is the only one who can actually cook]]]].
** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS9E11SpongeBobYoureFired Spongebob You're Fired]]" Mr. Krabs fires Spongebob, despite the fact that [[RemovingTheCrucialTeammate Spongebob is the only one who knows how to make Krabby Patties]], in order to save ''[[NotHyperbole a literal nickle]]''. Unsurprisingly, he ends up almost going out of business.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Quite a number of Mr. Krab's schemes to make and/or save money result in him losing money because his desire for immediate profit ends up blinding him to the long-term costs.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E7RedMansGreed Red Man's Greed]]" combines this trope with GamblingRuinsLives; the [[AdultsAreUseless adults of South Park end up losing the entire town to a casino]]. In order to get it back, they decide to pool their money together and bet it in order to win enough money to buy the town back. [[HopeSpot They manage to win more than enough money]], but end up blowing it in the hopes of becoming rich.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': Buttercup [[CompressedVice suddenly gains]] a MoneyFetish in "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS3E12MoralDecayMeetTheBeatAlls Moral Decay]]" when she learns about the profits of the ToothFairy. She tries to steal more of Bubbles's teeth, and when that doesn't work, she tries to wait for villains to act up [[TheToothHurts to knock their teeth out]]. She becomes tired of waiting and starts to attack them unprovoked. When Blossom and Bubbles learn of this, they have the villains Buttercup previously beat up [[KarmicInjury pummel her instead]]. And to add insult to injury, Professor Utonium reveals he discovered Buttercup's secret stash of bills, much to her dismay.

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'''Indices'''
* MoneyTropes
* CharacterFlawIndex
* DarthWiki/WhatAnIdiot
* StupidEvil
* StupidityTropes
* SelfishnessTropes
* IndexBackfire

There are a number of ways that greed can harm rather than improve profits; a villain's scheme to enrich themselves might end up failing because the villain focuses on short-term profit without regard for long-term costs or risks. A [[TheScrooge cheapskate]] who tries to save money by CuttingCorners might end up losing money due to lack of quality on their products causing less people to buy them or suffer lawsuits from lack of safety testing. A [[CutLexLuthorACheck criminal who could become wealthy legitimately]] might get themselves arrested or sued because their greed caused them to commit crimes rather than stick to the law. A GetRichQuickScheme that could be a profitable business venture ends up being a failure due to the schemer's impatience when it comes to making money.

While this can certainly be TruthInTelevision, to avoid controversy Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease.

** In the very first chapter, Hall Monitor Ushio self-appoints himself as Yugi's bodyguard and then goes on to beat up both Honda and Jonouchi (Tristan and Joey in the English dub of the anime), and then charges Yugi with 200,000 yen as a fee. When Yugi defends the defenseless Honda and Jounouchi, Ushio beats up Yugi as well, then threatens him with a knife to bring the money or else. When Yugi manages to complete the Millennium Puzzle and unlock its power, he challenges Ushio to an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: use Ushio's knife to stab at a stack of bills on top of their hands, with whatever the knife gets is what they keep (Yugi even bringing 400,000 yen instead of 200,000 like Ushio asked). Ushio's true nature comes out at the end of the game, where he finds himself unable to stab at the money without also getting his hand. In the end, he tries cheating by stabbing at Yugi, which ends with him getting inflicted with a Penalty Game (fittingly called "Greed, the Illusion of Avarice"). He suddenly sees everything around him as money, when in reality he's grabbing onto dead leaves and trash, while Yugi walks away with all the money he initially brought as "payment" for his bodyguard services.
** In Chapter 42, Jonouchi is looking to win a million yen by entering a GameShow, being selected as one of its participants. He however was selected by the TV producers since his background of a poor family and an abusive alcoholic father made them believe that he could get them high ratings. During the show, it becomes obvious that he has no intention on giving Jonouchi money if he wins, making sure to rig the final wheel spin to make him lose. Yugi, overhearing this, takes matters into his own hands by playing a game with the producer, and subsequently deals a penalty game. Said penalty game causes the producer to get in front of the live television cameras and demand money from the audience, ruining the production company and bankrupting them. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Yugi's efforts also unfortunately also causes problems for Jonouchi]], as the production company's bankruptcy [[YankTheDogsChain makes the check of one million yen that Jonouchi won legitimately worth nothing]] as an unintended side effect.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Pegasus invokes this during his 1v2 duel against Crowler and Bonaparte, who have challenged Pegasus to a duel where they will receive a job at his company if they win; Pegasus sets a stipulation saying that if they win, the one who has more Life Points remaining will receive a better position at his company, hoping to turn them against one another. Crowler doesn't take the bait, but Bonaparte does and starts attacking Crowler to lower his Life Points, causing Crowler to respond in kind. As a result, they end not getting jobs at Pegasus's company because they wasted cards that could have used on Pegasus on each other.
* ''Manga/Zom100BucketListOfTheDead'': A theme throughout the the "Millionaire of the Dead" arc. The protagonists, after struggling for the first few chapters, manage to build a bar that gets them plenty of food cans, which are Osaka's form of currency after the ZombieApocalypse. Akira Tendo, the main protagonist, literally gets blinded by greed (represented by the food cans covering his eyes after their newfound success) that he ends up taking the food cans and buying himself into the Castle Elite, [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism seeing himself as the reason why they got so many cans]] despite it being a group effort. He then finds himself unsatisfied with the constant talk of money with the other fat cat members of the castle, with an old man spelling out how badly greed will blind people in obtaining the most capital. Greed ends up being the downfall of Castle Elite, and through both Akira's old friend Takemina and the old man's words, they manage to show how dumb Akira had been for abandoning his friends in the pursuit of wealth.

** The first time is when the people of Osaka pool their cans into playing a game of "Canning or Zombie" at the Elite Castle's casino. The goal is for the contestant to run into a door in order to land in a hole with their winnings or in a hole to meet a grisly end with zombies, with no upper limit for betting. [[spoiler:Takemina ends up almost losing his life, though thanks to Akira's hint, he ends up winning instead. After winning however, Takemina then declares [[AllOrNothing a double or nothing bet with their current winnings]], which the fat cats believe is a foolish move that will give their casino an easy victory. However, doubling the amount of cans causes them to overflow and make it easy to see where the prize is above the doorframe, making it a guaranteed win at the casino game that was initially designed to drain the poor of their cans. Coupled with the game's "No Upper Limit" policy, this allows Takemina to keep winning until he cleans out the Elites entirely]].

* In ''The Presents of the Little Folk'', a tailor and a goldsmith come across a circle of little men and women dancing, presided over by an old man, and join in. The old man shaves off their hair and beards with a razor, and directs them to fill their pockets with coal. When they wake up the next morning, their hair has grown back, and the coal has turned into gold coins. The tailor is happy and satisfied but the goldsmith decides to go back, wanting more. He dances with the little folk, gets his hair shaved off and fills his pockets with coal, but the next day his hair doesn't grow back, the coal is still coal, and his gold from the previous night has also turned into coal. To add insult to injury, he has grown a lump on his chest.

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In the [=AbraxasVerse=] Timeline, greedy [[EvilInc dirty corporation]] Bio-Major sells fertility treatments made using illegally-marketeered DNA from ''[[DraconicAbomination Ghidorah]]'' for commercial use just to net themselves a short-term boon of profit; and they do so ''after'' Monarch made the whole world aware that mixing Ghidorah's DNA with humans leads to uncontrollable results, like the accidental creation of a virulent, transhuman and horrific UndeadAbomination. Once the dozens of woman around the world who take Bio-Major's treatment end up giving birth to horrifically-deformed, not-entirely-human [[HalfHumanHybrid Zmeyevich]] after several months, and many of the mothers suffer damaging or even lethal dents to their health, Bio-Major endure a major backlash for what's happened.

* ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'': Oscar combines this trope with GamblingRuinsLives; he's in deep debt to TheMafia as a result of countless failed {{Get Rich Quick Scheme}}s. His friend Angie gives him a pearl that can be sold in order to pay back the money he owes, but rather than just pay the money back, he decides to bet it on a (allegedly) rigged seahorse race. Unsurprisingly he not only loses his money, but also almost ends up dying for his idiocy.

* ''Film/TheMummy1999'': Beni Gabor combines this with DeathByMaterialism; he manages to escape the city of Hamunaptra with vast quantities of treasure, but decides to go back for more. By doing so, he inadvertently activates a trap causing the city to sink into the sand taking all of the treasure with it and trapping him inside the treasure room where moments later he's EatenAlive by scarab beetles in a truly KarmicDeath. To add insult to injury, Rick O'Connell and Evelyn escape from Hamunaptra and later use the treasure Beni took to buy a mansion in London.
* ''Film/Parasite2019'': The FatalFlaw of the Kim family. After Kim Ki-woo manages to get the poor family some money by being an English tutor for the Park Family, he enacts a scheme where he has the Parks unknowingly hire the Kim family for various jobs. The family had already achieved their goals after all four of them are hired by the Parks in well-paying jobs, but they just can't help but want even more. Their pursuit of money and laxness end up becoming their undoing however, [[spoiler:where they're caught red-handed partying in the Park mansion by Moon-gwang and Geun-sae, leading to the tragic birthday party. This includes the death of Kim Ki-jeong, with Kim Ki-taek fleeing from the authorities after murdering Park Dong-ik in a fit of rage, the latter forced to live in the secret bunker of the basement of the Park mansion, like Geun-se before him. By the end of the film, the Kim family lost Ki-jeong along with their newfound wealth, Ki-taek is stuck living in the bunker below the Parks' home forever to avoid being imprisoned, with the remaining Kim Ki-woo having the TragicDream of trying to buy the mansion back in order to save his Father]].

* ''Film/TradingPlaces'': The Duke brothers, who are already wealthy members of the upper-class who can afford anything they want, decide to risk their ''entire fortune'' on a scheme to corner the frozen orange juice market and make them obscenely wealthy. [[spoiler:This backfires on them horribly when Louis and Billy Ray catch wind of their scheme and enact their own plan that results in the Dukes being completely bankrupted.]]

** ''The Dog And His Reflection'': A dog carrying a bone sees his reflection in a pond, and thinks that he would like to have the "other dog"'s bone as well. He opens his mouth to grab it, only to drop the bone he is carrying, leaving him with none.

* ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'': {{Exploited|Trope}} by Hades, who knows humanity will be greedy enough to wage war under even a false promise of a wish as he spreads a rumor about a wish seed. Not only does this result humans slaughtering each other for nothing, but it causes the goddess of nature Viridi to view humans as nothing more than destructive creatures who need to be removed from the world. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:Hades uses the deaths to strengthen his own army.]]

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': The raccoon twins' obsession with stealing often ends poorly for them. In "Sea What I Found", Shifty attempts to squeeze through a door on a burning submarine, but because he's overloaded with gold on his person, he can't get through. He never thinks to abandon his treasure, and the gold melts on him, encasing him within. Later, Lifty finds his golden statue of a brother and [[SkewedPriorities instead of swimming up to the surface to safety, he attempts to bring Shifty's statue up with him]]. Unsurprisingly, he ends up drowning.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': In "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E1TreasureOfTheGoldenSuns Too Much of a Gold Thing]]," Scrooge and his nephews succumb to "gold fever," which includes an obsession with gold, [[AlcoholHic hiccuping]], and purring like a cat. When [[ArcVillain El Capitán]], whose greed has been keeping him alive for centuries, tries to off Scrooge, his nephews, Mrs. Beakley, and Webbigale by dipping them in a lake of molten gold, El Capitán pulls the back up, not wanting them to have one bit of "his" gold. After the valley collapses on itself and buries the golden city under a mountain of earth, El Capitán says he'll dig up the mountain himself so that he can finally get a hold of his treasure.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': The Flim Flam Brothers are a duo of [[ConMan Con Stallions]] whose FatalFlaw is their greed; all of their money making schemes end up backfiring on them because they insist on making as much money as they can in the short-term [[DidntThinkThisThrough without regard for the long-term risks or consequences]].

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS9E11SpongeBobYoureFired Spongebob You're Fired]]" Mr. Krabs fires Spongebob, despite the fact that [[RemovingTheCrucialTeammate Spongebob is the only one who knows how to make Krabby Patties]], in order to save ''[[NotHyperbole a literal nickle]]''. Unsurprisingly, he ends up almost going out business.