History Main / HiredToHuntYourself

* I'Film/TheGreenHornet''. Chudnofsky hires the Green Hornet via e-mail to kill Britt Reid. Kato gets the e-mail and shows up (as the Green Hornet's sidekick) to rescue Britt from the villains, causing them to put the pieces together:

* In the first issue of ''Comicbook/ActionComics'', Perry White gives Clark Kent the job of finding more info on this "Franchise/{{Superman}}" character.
-->'''Clark:''' Listen, Chief, if ''I'' can't find out anything about this Superman, no one can!

* In the first issue of ''Action Comics'', Perry White gives Clark Kent the job of finding more info on this "Franchise/{{Superman}}" character.

* ''Film/{{Anon}}''. [[spoiler:The killer turns out to be a hacking consultant brought in to catch the female hacker whom they wrongly assume is the killer. When the Commissioner roasts them about this, the detective protests that the Commissioner recommended him. Turns out he never did--the killer just faked the order and no-one bothered to check it with the Commissioner's office as they're used to accepting everyone at face value.]]

* In ''Film/NoWayOut'', the CIA suspects that a murdered secretary was having an affair with a KGB agent and assign Kevin Costner's character to find out who it was. The problem being, ''he'' was the one having an affair with the secretary, and thus has been put in charge of finding evidence to implicate himself as a KGB sleeper agent. Complicating things further, [[spoiler:he didn't kill the secretary, but he ''does'' work for the KGB.]] It was based on the 1948 film ''The Big Clock'', which was set in a media company rather than the CIA.
* In ''Film/TheGreenHornet'', Chudnofsky hires the Green Hornet via e-mail to kill Britt Reid. Kato gets the e-mail and shows up (as the Green Hornet's sidekick) to rescue Britt from the villains, causing them to put the pieces together:

* In ''SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}} vs. [[ComicBook/TheMask Mask]]'', Lobo ended up unknowingly hunting himself due to a time loop caused by the Mask.

* ''Literature/{{Reds}}'': [[spoiler:George Patton]], himself an undercover spy for the Socialist movement within the US Army, is put in charge of the part of the Army intelligence apparatus that is meant to sniff out any subversives and communist sympathizers in the military. Though many of the conservative hardliners in the military do suspect a mole somewhere high up in the organisation, they all fail to realize that it is the seemingly loyal and very trustworthy [[spoiler:Patton]].

* A brief aside in ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' concerns a sentient tank which has unknowingly been tasked with hunting down and destroying itself. He gets another story in the novels, where he discovers this after befriending some kids.
* An early ''Manga/LupinIII'' manga chapter featured Lupin paying an assassin to take down a crime lord. What the assassin didn't know was that he had multiple personalities, and that the crime lord in question was one of them.

* In Alan Parker's ''Film/AngelHeart'' (1987), private eye Harold Angel is hired to find a missing singer called "Johnny Favourite", with horrific results. Harold discovers that he himself is actually Johnny Favourite and had erased his own memories to escape a DealWithTheDevil he had made for money and fame, sacrificing a young man and stealing his identity to accomplish this. The Devil allowed Johnny to condemn himself himself to Hell by uncovering his own evil personality, and Johnny has murdered most of his past associates and ''raped his own daughter to death'' in the process.

* The French movie ''Les Grandes Familles'' (''Film/ThePossessors'') has the business tycoon Schoudler (the patriarch of the titular OldMoney family) learn that his niece is pregnant by his secretary Lachaume. One morning, he gives the secretary his usual orders, and then tasks the unsuspecting Lachaume with finding out the father's identity so as to deliver a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on him before getting back to his mail. Lachaume takes two steps before going back and confessing he's the father. Schoudler tells Lachaume he made a very good decision: had he gone out the door, it would have been for good.

* The TropeCodifier, which may have inspired many of the above examples, is Kenneth Fearing's novel ''The Big Clock''. This book is about a journalist who is having an affair with a woman who is also the mistress of the owner of the magazine he works for. When the owner discovers that his mistress is unfaithful, he murders her, and then orders the journalist to find her lover so that he can frame the man for the murder.
* Invoked by Kimball Kinnison in ''[[Literature/{{Lensman}} Second Stage Lensmen]]''. Kinnison had the Patrol plant evidence that he (in his guise as THE Lensman) was tracing the Boskonian communication lines, so that he (in his cover identity as the Boskonian Traska Gannel) would be ordered to investigate. [[spoiler:This was a cover for Kinnison to go off-planet and join the ''Dauntless'' in following a Boskonian ship traveling down a hyperspatial tube.]]
* In ''[[Literature/GarrettPI Faded Steel Heat]]'', Garrett mentions that this once happened to Pokey Pigotta, a former fellow-detective who used a lot of false identities and disguises in his work.
* Kurt Vonnegut's ''Literature/MotherNight'' briefly tells the story of an Hungarian Jew who managed to infiltrate the local S.S. division, and made such a good impression on his superiors that he was tasked with finding who had been leaking information to the Jews about planned raids (which, of course, he did himself). When asked if he was successful in this mission, he happily reports that fourteen S.S. men were executed on his recommendation.

* The ''Literature/NeroWolfe'' story ''Literature/TooManyCooks'' has a brief subplot where Archie is assigned to help Crisler the house detective find out whose been throwing rocks at a guest, he quickly deduces that the detective has been doing it out of both revenge (over the guest trying to get him fired after Crisler caught the man's chauffeur stealing grease) and to make the guy shut up due to wanting Crisler to catch his mysterious assailant. Archie finds the whole thing hilarious, and doesn't blow his cover (at least not to the hotel manager).
* ''Literature/FunJungle'': An accidental example in ''Lion Down'', where one of the guards trying to figure out whose been making the giraffes sick is the one whose been doing it themselves (by innocently feeding them a plant that they have a bad reaction with).

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', Hank asks Walter for chemistry advice in tracking Heisenberg, and candidly discusses the investigation with him without even thinking that Walt could be involved.

* An episode of ''Series/NashBridges'' has Bettina ask Joe (who runs a private detective agency on the side) to investigate his girlfriend who he thinks is cheating on him. Since Nash is working another case, Joe asks Evan to join him. As soon as Evan hears the girlfriend's name, he solves the case...because he's the one she's cheating with.

* A ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' episode called "[[Recap/LeverageS05E06TheDBCooperJob The D.B. Cooper Job]]" reveals that one of the agents sent to track down the infamous hijacker was, in fact, the hijacker himself (who used the money to help the widow of a dead war buddy). There are hints indicating that his partner may have suspected it from the beginning, but chose to "redeem" the criminal by having him hunt down other criminals. After all, he did swear to "bring D.B. Cooper to justice", he just didn't specify on which side of justice. When first approached by the agent to be his partner, "Cooper" is hesitant at first, but his wife (the stewardess on the same plane) convinces him to invoke this trope.

* In Season 1 of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', protagonist Eleanor Shellstrop finds herself in this position. She's a bad person who wound up in the good afterlife and wants to stay there, but her old ways of negative behavior cause foundational chaos in the neighborhood that alerts the celestial architect, Michael. Eventually, Michael in his stress asks Eleanor to help him in his investigation to find the flaw in the neighborhood, all while Eleanor knows it's her. [[spoiler: Since the Good Place neighborhood is actually a psychological torture chamber in the Bad Place , this hunt-yourself scenario was just one of Michael's many tortures for Eleanor.]]

* In ''Theatre/TheRevengersTragedy'', the AntiHero Vindice is introduced to one of his targets, Lussurioso, as the pimp/scoundrel for hire Piato. After double crossing Lussurioso under that identity, Vindice is introduced to Lussurioso as himself by his brother and co-conspirator. Lussurioso then hires Vindice to kill Piato.

* In ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'', the Marked One is hunting down Strelok, who turns out to be himself. [[spoiler:Turns out it was a coincidence, because the entity that brainwashed the protagonist before the start of the game wasn't aware that he was Strelok, mistaking him for one of the many mooks assaulting his base.]]

** [[spoiler:Tyrell Badd planted himself as the head of the Yatagarasu case to conceal evidence which would incriminate himself and his partners as the Yatagarasu.]]

* ''Webcomic/IWasKidnappedByLesbianPiratesFromOuterSpace'': In a bonus story, Ursula is hired by a PI to catch a woman having an affair in a women's bathroom and take photos. As the lover in question she forgets the camera.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Peter accidentally kills Quagmire's new pet cat and hides the body. Quagmire is frantic to find it. At the end of the episode Quagmire offers a reward for information leading to his cat. Peter tells him "I killed your cat" and takes the money.

* Joseph [=DeAngelo=], the man identified through DNA as the Golden State Killer whose modus operandi was the hot prowl burglary, was a police officer during 2/3 of the criminal spree and was promoted to head of the anti-burglary task force at one point.
* French gendarme Alain Lamare was tasked with searching for a serial killer prowling the Oise, and was arrested when his higher-ups started to have suspicions about him.

Compare BruceWayneHeldHostage, in which the hostage the villains are using to lure in the hero is, unknown to them, the hero himself. Contrast DetectivePatsy where a perp hires a detective in order to throw suspicion off himself.

* In ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfZeldaParadiseCalling'', set during the events of ''VideoGame/OcarinaOfTime'', Sheik poses as an ally to Ganondorf because of past conflict between the Hylian royal family and the Sheikah, thus diverting him from sending anyone else to search for Princess Zelda.

--> '''Quest log:''' Find out who sold out Joran. Here's a hint — it was you.

* After it was determined that French serial killer Marcel Petiot had not left Paris, several members of the French Forces of the Interior were drafted to search for him, including one certain Henri Valéri. Valéri was Marcel Petiot... [[BeardnessProtectionProgram with a beard]].

* ''Film/{{Breach}}''. Based on the RealLife story of Robert Hanssen (see below).

* Occurs in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Office Spaceman" when Roger leaks photos of himself to make money, which leads to the CIA forming an Alien Task Force. Roger then ends up leading the task force and frames Stan as the alien to cover his tracks.

* In Season 1 of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', protagonist Eleanor Shellstrop finds herself in this position. She's a bad person who wound up in the good afterlife and wants to stay there, but her old ways of negative behavior cause foundational chaos in the neighborhood that alerts the celestial architect, Michael. Eventually, Michael in his stress asks Eleanor to help him in his investigation to find the flaw in the neighborhood, all while Eleanor knows it's her. [[spoiler: Since the Good Place neighborhood is actually a psychological torture chamber in ths Bad Place , this hunt-yourself scenario was just one of Michael's many tortures for Eleanor.]]

* In a sidequest in ''VideoGame/Yakuza1'', Kazuma Kiryu recovers a cell phone from the body of a man killed in a mugging gone wrong. He then receives several instructions from someone on the other end who assumes that Kiryu is the phone's owner, and following them reveals that the dead man was a hitman hired to assassinate someone. The last instruction he receives is to kill Kazuma Kiryu.

Compare BruceWayneHeldHostage, in which the hostage the villains are using to lure in the hero is, unknown to them, the hero himself.

** Light also does this, joining the anti-Kira task force even though he's L's prime suspect for being [[SerialKiller Kira]]. Both L and Light see this as the best way to get the information they need to beat the other.

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* Quirrel from ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'' ''refuses'' to help Harry speculate on the possibility that it was him who [[spoiler:killed Hermione]], noting that either he does too good a job, and convinces him he did it, or does too poor a job, and convinces him that he's covering up that he did it. And that [[ExpansionPackPast yes, it has happened to him before]].