History Main / HiredToHuntYourself

-->-- ''Film/TheManInTheIronMask'' (1998)

* 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 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.
* ''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 in a [[EverythingIsOnline world with no privacy]] so are used to accepting everyone at face value.]]

* In ''Film/BladeRunner2049'', Officer K finds information that leads him to believe he's actually the missing Replicant child he's been searching for. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope He's not.]] ]]
* ''Film/{{Breach}}''. Eric's supervisor at the FBI reveals to him that Robert Hanssen, the mole (see also RealLife below) was, at one time, in charge of a task force that was supposed to ferret out the mole in the FBI...namely, Hanssen himself. In the movie a subdued Hanssen lampshades this in a low-key MotiveRant after his arrest.

* ''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:
-->'''Chudnofsky:''' ''Britt Reid'' is the Green Hornet!
-->'''Scanlon:''' Yeah, I know. You hired a guy to kill himself.

* ''Film/NoWayOut1987''. A politician murders his mistress/secretary after discovering she's having an affair with someone else, then assigns Kevin Costner's character to find out who it was, under the guise of a hunt for a KGB mole whom the secretary was supposedly involved with. The problem being, Costner's character 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 ''Film/TheBigClock'', which was set in a media company rather than the CIA.
* A variation occurs in the Denzel Washington vehicle ''Film/OutOfTime''. Matt, the police chief trying to solve a double homicide, had nothing to do with the murder, but there was lots of incriminating evidence since he was having a secret affair with one of the victims. As a result, he had to find ways to hide the evidence against him from the other cops long enough to figure out what really happened.

* ''Film/AScannerDarkly'': Bob Arctor, codenamed "Fred", a narc, goes undercover to find a drug dealer. His superiors, who don't know his true identity so as to protect him from corrupt cops, tell him that Bob is their prime suspect (mistaking money he received for successful tips for money earned from the sale of illegal drugs) and assign "Fred" to spy on himself. The [[MindScrew screwy part]] is that the effects of the drug make it so that "Fred" ''forgets'' that he's Bob, so ''he'' starts to suspect himself too.

* 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.
* In ''Literature/BrothersInArms'', Admiral Naismith is hired to kidnap Lord Vorkosigan--which is quite easy for him since they happen to be the same person. [[spoiler:The client knows about his double identity and successfully uses the job to lure him into a trap.]]
* 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.
* ''Literature/FunJungle'': An accidental example in ''Lion Down'', where one of the guards trying to figure out who's been making the giraffes sick is the one who's been doing it themselves (by innocently feeding them a plant that they have a bad reaction with).
* ''Literature/IJedi'': When a mysterious Jedi begins a VigilanteMan rampage on the mercenary groups working for Moff Tavira, she orders the leader of the Survivors' Bolt Squadron, Jenos Idanian (really a disguised Corran Horn), to find and deal with the Jedi. Unbeknownst to Tavira, Corran ''is'' the Jedi.
* Kurt Vonnegut's ''Literature/MotherNight'' briefly tells the story of a 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).

* The original novel ''Literature/AScannerDarkly'', which was the basis for the aforementioned movie.
* 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 another Creator/PhilipKDick story ''The Skull'', a BoxedCrook is sent back in time to assassinate the founder of a religious cult, [[StableTimeLoop only to find that it's himself]] (thanks to a mistake with the time machine, he arrived after he 'died' and thus 'came back from the dead'.)
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': In ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'', Highlord Dalinar appoints his son Adolin to investigate the death of [[spoiler:the ArcVillain Highlord Sadeas]], unaware that Adolin committed the murder himself. Adolin struggles with the assignment and finally [[spoiler:comes clean to his father, but [[KarmaHoudini avoids punishment]]]].

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' Zola spends several pages extolling the virtues of her plan to usurp the Wulfenbach Empire and how in her plain no one needs to be killed except the Wulfenbach heir to Gil while trying to recruit him to join in toppling the Empire. Unbeknownst to her Gil is the Wulfenbach heir, he's also savvy enough to realize that her plan will cause considerable bloodshed regardless of the way she's trying to present it, though he doesn't realize that her plans include [[spoiler:becoming the Other 2.0]].

* ''Film/PointOfOrigin'': John Orr is a fire investigator who unknown to all has been setting a series of fires. Unaware of him being the arsonist (at first), the task force consults him, brings him to the crime scenes and even asks him to create a psychological profile of the arsonist.

* ''Literature/{{Reds}}'': [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/GeorgeSPatton]], 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 communist mole somewhere high up in the organisation, they all fail to realize that it is the seemingly loyal and very trustworthy [[spoiler:Patton]].

* In ''Film/InfernalAffairs'', both central characters are in this situation. One is a policeman undercover in a criminal gang, while the other is a corrupt policeman secretly working for the boss of the same gang. Both end up being ordered by their apparent bosses to find the mole within their team.
** ''Film/TheDeparted'', being a remake, has the same setup.

* ''Film/NoWayOut''. A politician murders his mistress/secretary after discovering she's having an affair with someone else, then assigns Kevin Costner's character to find out who it was, under the guise of a hunt for a KGB mole whom the secretary was supposedly involved with. The problem being, Costner's character 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 ''Film/TheBigClock'', which was set in a media company rather than the CIA.

* ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'': During ''I, Jedi'', when a mysterious Jedi has begun wreaking havoc on the mercenary groups working for Tavira, she orders the leader of the Survivors' Bolt Squadron, Jenos Idanian (really a disguised Corran Horn), to find and deal with the Jedi. Unbeknownst to Tavira, Corran ''is'' the Jedi.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'' the players are attempting to uncover the identity of Mr. Boddy's killer. Of course, depending on how many people are playing, the odds that one of the players is the guilty party can range from possible to guaranteed. And you could very well win by proving that you are the guilty party yourself.
** In the movie adaptation, one of the multiple endings shows that, with everyone splitting up to search the house for the killer, this trope applies to almost all of them because everyone who died was killed by a different person in the house.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', one minor side quest has a runaway [[LizardFolk Argonian]] slave who poses as a guide to the slave hunter hired to bring him back in. For bonus points, the alias the guide uses is a direct translation of the name under which he is wanted, as only other Argonians (who obviously aren't going to help), the odd slave trader, and an extremely intelligent PlayerCharacter know the language.
* In the NES game ''VisualNovel/ThePortopiaSerialMurderCase'', Yasu is assigned to help the player character solve a murder that Yasu himself committed
* 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.]]
* Occurred as a {{Good Bad Bug|s}} in ''VideoGame/{{Uplink}}''. It was possible to get a "track down the IP of the hacker who brought down our mainframe" mission in which you are the hacker. You could then report ''yourself'' for a reward, [[RefugeInAudacity with no negative consequences]]. This was fixed in a later patch.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Gunpoint}}'', Conway (a freelance spy) gets hired by the chief of police to help gather evidence for a murder case. Conway actually ''is'' innocent, but through ContrivedCoincidence everything points towards him being the killer. With each piece of evidence you find, you can choose whether or not to withhold it. [[spoiler:Best not withhold the fake one that's part of a SecretTestOfCharacter, though.]]
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'': In the "Identity Thief" SideQuest, Batman investigates a series of bizarre killings and is stunned to find eyewitness accounts and fingerprints all point to Bruce Wayne. [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Oracle]] suggests that Batman has been under a lot of stress and it could be the work of Scarecrow. [[spoiler:Subverted when it is revealed to be [[ComicBook/{{Hush}} Dr. Tommy Elliot]], Bruce's childhood friend, who has committed the murders to harvest the face and finger tissue he needs to turn himself into a perfect doppelganger of Bruce Wayne to destroy his life.]]
** Later flipped around in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'': [[spoiler: Elliott takes Lucius Fox hostage and demands that Batman bring him Bruce Wayne. Batman simply unmasks himself. Elliott [[ThisCannotBe is so freaked out]] Batman and Lucius take the opportunity to knock him out.]]

* 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 the infamous ex-yakuza and Patriarch killer, Kazuma Kiryu.

* ''Webcomic/{{Marilith}}'': Marilith, an assassin looking to make a little money on the side, kidnaps a rich businessman's daughter to hold for ransom. The businessman puts a bounty on the kidnapper's head. Marilith's boss then gives her the assignment of hunting down and killing the kidnapper for the bounty.
* ''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.

* One particular ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' storyline had the Toughs hired to steal the corpse of their hated enemy General Xinchub. Shortly afterwards, they got a call requesting to hire the Toughs, an otherwise (presumably) neutral party, as funeral security... to prevent the body from being stolen. There were a lot of {{Spit Take}}s during that conversation.
--> "Kevyn, do I need to get a doctor in here?"

* In an episode of DPFE's ''TheInspector'' series, Inspector Clouseau and Sgt. Deux-Deux are called to a mad scientist's castle to investigate reports of a rampaging monster. Deux-Deux [[TooDumbToLive unwittingly drinks a secret formula to soothe a tummy-ache]]. Each time Deux-Deux burps he turns into a hulking green monster, violently attacks his boss, and turns back again none the wiser. Traveling in close quarters with the sergeant, who's been pressed into duty to help catch the beast, Clouseau finds himself assaulted repeatedly whenever his partner transforms into the great green man-beast. Having finally suffered enough, the frightened Inspector winds up fleeing the castle with a monstrous Deux-Deux behind him. [[spoiler: At the end the monster they seek is real enough, but he's a tiny, fairly harmless Frankenstein's monster, annoyed by all the noise the officers have been making.]]

* [[ComicBook/OutlawKid Lance Temple]] hired himself to hunt himself, in the ''ComicBook/BlazeOfGlory'' miniseries.
* In the [[ComicBook/ActionComicsNumber1 first issue]] of ''Comicbook/ActionComics'', [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Daily Star editor George Taylor]] gives Clark Kent the job of finding more info on this "Franchise/{{Superman}}" character.
-->'''George Taylor:''' Reports have been streaming in that a fellow with gigantic strength named ''Superman'' actually exists. I'm making it your steady assignment to cover these reports. Think you can handle it, Kent?\\
'''Clark:''' Listen, Chief, if ''I'' can't find out anything about this Superman, ''no one can!''

* In ''Fanfic/PagesOfHarmony'', Twilight Sparkle helps organize the town to catch the pony who appears to be kidnapping other ponies from the town. Nopony realizes that ''she'' is actually the sinister pony they're looking for.

* ''Film/AScannerDarkly'': Bob Arctor, codenamed "Fred", a narc, goes undercover to find a drug dealer. His superiors, who don't know his true identity so as to protect him from corrupt cops, tell him that Bob is their prime suspect (mistaking money he received for successful tips for money earned from the sale of illegal drugs) and assign "Fred" to spy on himself. The [[MindScrew screwy part]] is that the effects of the drug make it so that "Fred" ''forgets'' that he's Bob, so ''he'' starts to suspect himself too.
* ''Film/NoWayOut''. A politician murders his mistress/secretary after discovering she's having an affair with someone else, then assigns Kevin Costner's character to find out who it was, under the guise of a hunt for a KGB mole whom the secretary was supposedly involved with. The problem being, Costner's character 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 ''Film/TheBigClock'', which was set in a media company rather than the CIA.

* ''Film/{{Breach}}''. Eric's supervisor at the FBI reveals to him that Robert Hanssen, the mole (see also RealLife below) was, at one time, in charge of a task force that was supposed to ferret out the mole in the FBI...namely, Hanssen himself. In the movie a subdued Hanssen lampshades this in a low-key MotiveRant after his arrest.
-->'''Hanssen''': Can you imagine, sitting in a room with a bunch of your colleagues, everybody trying to guess the identity of a mole and all the while, it's you they're after, you they're looking for? That must be very satisfying, wouldn't you think?

* 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 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.
* Happens in ''Film/TheBigHit'' when Lou Diamond Phillips and his crew kidnap the daughter of their boss' friend and is ordered to get her back.
* This is the premise of ''Film/{{Looper}}'', only in this case the protagonist has been ordered to kill ''his future self''.
* ''Film/NonStop'': One of the people the air marshal asks to help locate the terrorist on his flight is actually working with them.
* In ''Film/BladeRunner2049'', Officer K finds information that leads him to believe he's actually the missing Replicant child he's been searching for. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope He's not.]] ]]
* 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.
* In ''Film/TheBigClock'', Earl Janoth drags George Stead back from his vacation to run the manhunt for 'Jefferson Randolph': not knowing that the man he believes to be Jefferson Randolph is actually Stead.

* ''Literature/TourOfTheMerrimack'': In ''Wolf Star'', an intelligence officer assigned to root out an enemy spy turns out to be the spy. He is discovered when he tries to frame someone else.
* The original novel ''Literature/AScannerDarkly'', which was the basis for the aforementioned movie.
* In another Creator/PhilipKDick story ''The Skull'', a BoxedCrook is sent back in time to assassinate the founder of a religious cult, [[StableTimeLoop only to find that it's himself]] (thanks to a mistake with the time machine, he arrived after he 'died' and thus 'came back from the dead'.)
* In ''Literature/BrothersInArms'', Admiral Naismith is hired to kidnap Lord Vorkosigan--which is quite easy for him since they happen to be the same person. [[spoiler:The client knows about his double identity and successfully uses the job to lure him into a trap.]]

* 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.]]

* ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'': During ''I, Jedi'', when a mysterious Jedi has begun wreaking havoc on the mercenary groups working for Tavira, she orders the leader of the Survivors' Bolt Squadron, Jenos Idanian (really a disguised Corran Horn), to find and deal with the Jedi. Unbeknownst to Tavira, Corran ''is'' the Jedi.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': In ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'', Highlord Dalinar appoints his son Adolin to investigate the death of [[spoiler:the ArcVillain Highlord Sadeas]], unaware that Adolin committed the murder himself. Adolin struggles with the assignment and finally [[spoiler:comes clean to his father, but [[KarmaHoudini avoids punishment]]]].

* ''Literature/FunJungle'': An accidental example in ''Lion Down'', where one of the guards trying to figure out who's been making the giraffes sick is the one who's been doing it themselves (by innocently feeding them a plant that they have a bad reaction with).

* Series/{{Dexter}}, as a serial killer who works for the police, is sometimes put into the position of having to investigate his own crime scenes — the first instance of this is the Season 1 episode ''Return to Sender''.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Wolf in the Fold": When a murder occurs on the planet Argelius, the chief city administrator, Mr. Hengist, takes charge of the investigation and continues investigating as more murders take place. It later turns out that the creature inhabiting his body is responsible for the murders.
* In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', an alien committed a crime and then erased his own memory of it. Afterward, he worked so hard on solving the crime that he ended up revealing himself as the culprit.
** The same thing happened in an episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', with the added wrinkle that the criminal didn't just erase their own memory, but also transferred it to someone else, knocked them out, and left them at the crime scene to frame them.
** In another episode that plays heavily with the TimeyWimeyBall, some time cops from the future are hunting a saboteur aboard ''Voyager''. The villain turns out to be [[spoiler: a future version of the timeship's captain, whose many run-ins with Janeway had driven (will drive?) him insane.]]
* In the 2009 ''Series/{{V|2009}}'' miniseries, a Fifth Column member is chosen to co-head an FBI task force to track down the Fifth Column.
* In one episode, Series/{{Columbo}} consults one of his colleagues, a CSI lab tech, on the murder case he's working on, unaware that his friend is in fact the murderer.
* ''Series/PushingDaisies'': In "The Fun in Funeral", Emerson brings Ned in on his latest case, investigating the death of a funeral director. Emerson knows full well that Ned killed (or "accidentally involuntarily manslaughtered") the funeral director [[EquivalentExchange when he brought Chuck back to life]], but he points out to Ned that the best way to cover it up is for them to take the case and make sure no one else solves it.

* This happened on ''Series/{{Bones}}'' with some frequency, including the times that:
** The hunt for the Gormogan's apprentice revealed that [[spoiler:it was Zack Addy, who had been tampering with evidence for some time before his reveal.]]
** The Grave Digger turned out to be [[spoiler:the [=FBI=] agent assigned to head the Grave Digger investigation.]]

* On ''Series/{{Veep}}'', Selina reads a story about a White House staffer calling her the [[CountryMatters C-word]] and tasks Amy with finding out who it was. The person who did so was, of course, Amy, but fortunately [[EverybodyDidIt so did everyone else]].
* 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.
* In the ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' episode "Face Off", Nick is assigned to investigate the deaths of a group of Hundjägers he killed as a Grimm.
** An earlier episode has an arson expert called in to investigate a series of seemingly unrelated explosions when it turns out both victims were brothers. He claims both explosions were accidental, though the second victim (who survived the explosion) is shot to death. He later confesses he had both brothers killed as his family members were killed by the victims' sister.
* One episode of ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' has Gob overhear his girlfriend Marta tell her mother over the phone that she's actually in love with a guy she calls "Hermano". Gob asks Michael to find Hermano for him. At the end of the episode, Michael discovers that "Hermano" is Spanish for "brother" and that Marta is in love with him.
* 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 on 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.
* ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'':
-->'''Jack Crawford''': Would you care to help us catch the [Chesapeake] Ripper?
-->'''Hannibal Lecter [[ForegoneConclusion AKA The Chesapeake Ripper]]''': How could I refuse?
* ''Series/{{Jessie}}'': In "Someone Has Tou-Pay", the person behind Bertram's toupee disappearing was Jessie herself, as she accidentally fed it to Mrs. Kipling without warning.
* In ''Series/OrphanBlack'', Sarah (impersonating Beth) is brought in to investigate the death of Katja... whom Sarah herself buried after Katja was murdered by Helena. To add to the complexity, all four of these characters are clones played by [[Creator/TatianaMaslany the same actress]], so it's in Sarah's best interest to ensure Helena isn't caught.
* Happens to [[Series/TheSaint Simon Templar]] in the episode "To Kill a Saint". When nightclub owner Paul Verrier is tricked into believing that The Saint has tried to murder him, Templar goes to see him to try to resolve the situation. However, Verrier assumes that he's Braddock, a hitman whom Verrier has hired to kill Templar. Templar quickly adopts the role, and so becomes the hitman with a contract on himself.
* 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 one episode of ''Series/TheMunsters'', Herman has insomnia and goes on long walks every night out of boredom. Since he's not doing anything with his time anyway, he contacts the police and offers his services as a citizen deputy during his walks. Meanwhile, Lily is suspicious of Herman's late-night walks and thinks he's having an affair, so she contacts the police to have him followed. You can see where this is going...
* Pulled by Michael Weston from ''Series/BurnNotice'' on a couple occasions, and the ever-present narration points out the advantages of such a situation.
--> '''Michael''': When you're playing the role of spy-hunter and the person you're hunting is yourself, the trail of evidence can lead anywhere you say it does... and no one can create more fear, more paranoia, than the spy-hunter.
* Wheelchair-bound Miles Hawkins created a suit of PoweredArmor to help himself walk and uses it to fight crime as the superhero Series/{{MANTIS}}. Ironically, when the police start looking into the M.A.N.T.I.S., they turn to Hawkins for help.
* On ''Series/TheBlacklist'', Reddington goes to prison after someone reports him. After he's freed, he asks Elizabeth to help find the person who turned him in. It was actually Elizabeth herself.
* Downplayed in ''Series/Charmed2018,'' where Maggie kisses Lucy's boyfriend and then is instructed by Lucy to find out who he's cheating with. She debates what to do for a while, but when Lucy "realizes" that there ''is'' no other woman and the problems in their relationship are her own fault, Maggie comes clean.
* 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 she. [[spoiler: Since the faux Good Place neighborhood the cast are is actually a psychological torture chamber in the Bad Place, this hunt-yourself scenario was just one of Michael's many tortures for Eleanor]].
* ''Series/LawAndOrderOrganizedCrime'': In "[[Recap/LawAndOrderOrganizedCrimeS2E6Unforgiveable Unforgiveable]]" Stabler is ordered by Kosta to find the mole (himself, an undercover cop in his organization) and prove that isn't through doing so.

* In ''Film/theBigClock'', Earl Janoth drags George Stead back from his vacation to run the manhunt for 'Jefferson Randolph': not knowing that the man he believes to be Jefferson Randolph is actually Stead.

* ''Film/NoWayOut''. A politician murders his mistress/secretary after discovering she's having an affair with someone else, then assigns Kevin Costner's character to find out who it was, under the guise of a hunt for a KGB mole whom the secretary was supposedly involved with. The problem being, Costner's character 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.

--> "Wow, you guys are good, I'm the last person I would've suspected, but I was looking for ''me'' all this time! It's the perfect crime."

* 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.]]

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'': In the "Identity Thief" SideQuest, the eyewitness accounts and fingerprint Batman finds all point to Bruce Wayne. [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Oracle]] suggests that Batman has been under a lot of stress and it could be the work of Scarecrow. [[spoiler:Subverted when it is revealed to be [[ComicBook/{{Hush}} Dr. Tommy Elliot]], Bruce's childhood friend.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Hall Monitor", [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick take it upon themselves to catch a maniac loose in Bikini Bottom, not realizing that said "maniac" was actually [=SpongeBob=] himself, wreaking havoc in his misguided attempts to help the citizens.

* 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, only for Stan to soon end up exposing him.
* Towards the end of ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'', Julien's arch-nemesis Karl announces his plan to retire and holds a contest to determine who will fill in the position of Julien's arch-nemesis. Julien himself decides to enter the contest realizing if he's his own arch-nemesis then he doesn't have anything to fear.
* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'': After the Galra Empire figures out there’s a mole in high command who’s helped the Paladins escape a trap, Haggar puts the ever-dutiful Lieutenant Thace in charge of finding the traitor. Thace, of course, ''is'' TheMole. [[spoiler:When Haggar finds out, she’s highly unamused and [[ColdBloodedTorture makes it known]].]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' episode "Green Streets", Cricket slips on a BananaPeel and teams up with Officer Keys to find the litterbug who left it on the floor and bring him to justice. Then one night, Cricket happens to look through Keys' surveillance tapes and discovers that the litterbug is himself, carelessly throwing stuff away wherever he went, including the very peel he slipped on. Keys also discovers this and chases after Cricket.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'' the players are attempting to uncover the identity of Mr. Boddy's killer. Of course, one of the players is the guilty party. And you could very well win by proving that you are the guilty party yourself.

[[folder:Film]]

* In an episode of DPFE's ''WesternAnimation/The Inspector'' series, Inspector Clouseau and Sgt. Deux-Deux are called to a mad scientist's castle to investigate reports of a rampaging monster. Deux-Deux [[TooDumbToLive unwittingly drinks a secret formula to soothe a tummy-ache]]. Each time Deux-Deux burps he turns into a hulking green monster, violently attacks his boss, and turns back again none the wiser. Traveling in close quarters with the sergeant, who's been pressed into duty to help catch the beast, Clouseau finds himself assaulted repeatedly whenever his partner transforms into the great green man-beast. Having finally suffered enough, the frightened Inspector winds up fleeing the castle with a monstrous Deux-Deux behind him. [[spoiler: At the end the monster they seek is real enough, but he's a tiny, fairly harmless Frankenstein's monster, annoyed by all the noise the officers have been making.]]

* In ''Comicbook/{{Sleeper}}'', the villain TAO's organisation goes on a hunt for the undercover operative in their midst. Naturally, Holden, the undercover operative, is right in the middle of it.

* In the [[ComicBook/ActionComicsNumberOne first issue]] of ''Comicbook/ActionComics'', [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Daily Star editor George Taylor]] gives Clark Kent the job of finding more info on this "Franchise/{{Superman}}" character.