History Main / KansasCityShuffle

-->He was so patently, obviously ''bad'' at running a bent Find-the-Lady game and other street scams that people positively queued up to trick the dumb trickster and walked away grinning... right up to the moment when they tried to spend the coins they'd scooped up so quickly... Later on they learned that Streep might be rubbish with a deck of cards but also that his lack was more than made up for by his exceptional skill as a pickpocket.
*** Moist does this later on in the Clacks vs. Post race against the Grand Trunk. He knows that the Trunk's chairman, Reacher Gilt, is just as much a conman as he, so he provides him with a fake con to foil. First he turns up to the race with a broomstick that has silver stars painted on it, making it seem like it is a magic broomstick and he intends to win the race by flying. When Gilt points out that this is against the rules, Lipwig points out that each Clacks tower has a horse available to deliver messages when the towers break, and that using them would be cheating as well. Thus both methods are disqualified. Gilt naturally assumes that this was Moist's plan all along, but in actuality he doesn't intend to "win" at all. At the time his plan was to alter the message to one that deigned to damage the mechanisms in the tower, and it could be countered if they sent horses to warn later towers. He ends up changing the message along the way to reveal the Trunk's treachery in front of everyone, disguised as a message from beyond the grave, instead.

* The MontyHallProblem uses this trope to illustrate probability theory. In the problem, a contestant on a game show is given the opportunity to win a new car by choosing one of three doors -- one of the doors has a car behind it, and two of which have [[{{zonk}} goats]] behind them. After the contestant makes his choice, the game show host opens one of the two other doors to reveal one of the goats, then asks the contestant if he would rather choose the prize behind the third and final door, which could either be the car or the second goat. By focusing one's attention on the two remaining closed doors (one of which conceals a car, and one of which conceals a goat), the problem manages to make it look like one has a simple 50/50 chance of winning the car. In fact, the contestant has a 2 in 3 chance of choosing a goat on his first guess, but only a 1 in 3 chance of choosing the car... meaning that the contestant will always have a better chance of getting the car if he changes his choice when given the chance.
** The contest, as seen on the original game show, [[http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/21/us/behind-monty-hall-s-doors-puzzle-debate-and-answer.html?pagewanted=all had a psychological element]] too. As Monty Hall pointed out, he didn't have to let you switch to another door. If you picked the wrong door, he could just open that door and send you home with a goat. He was more likely to let you switch if you guessed right, and he'd sometimes [[ReversePsychology offer you money to stick with your original (correct) choice]]. Contestants usually took this as proof that they were on the right track, so they'd turn down the money and get a goat for their trouble. Monty Hall concluded, "if you can get me to offer you five thousand dollars not to open the door, take the money and go home."

** A love of Kansas City Shuffles [[InTheBlood runs in the family]], as ''Film/OceansEight'' has a similar trick. Tess Ocean organizes a team to steal the priceless Toussaint Diamond, set into a necklace, at the Met Gala. The cops and a private investigator familiar with her ways immediately suspect the truth and try to pin the theft on her...but as they're struggling to do so, [[spoiler: they fail to notice that Tess's ''real'' target was every single jewel from the Met's new Elizabethan fashion exhibit. Notably, most of Tess's squad also fell for this con--everyone but Lou (who pulled off the heist with help from Yan) and Amita (who made fake gems to replace the real ones) thought the Toussaint was the target, and are shocked when Tess reveals the scope of their scheme.]]

* In ''Fanfic/ButDoctorIAmPagliacci'', Jack/The Joker and his allies send several criminals to try and steal various pieces of time travel technology. As Superman/[[spoiler:Lex]] knows by now that Jack remembers the original timeline, so he obviously concludes they're trying to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and has every known time travel method locked down. However, it then turns out that the raids were meant to fail, as a distraction for Jack's real objective: stealing the Eradicator AI from the Fortress of Solitude.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', Jotaro uses a set of magnets to trick DIO [[spoiler: into thinking he can [[MoveInTheFrozenTime move while DIO has stopped time]]]]. DIO laughs at having figured out the trick so easily... [[spoiler: except Jotaro wasn't trying to trick him into thinking he ''could'' move during stopped time, but rather was trying to trick DIO into thinking that Jotaro ''couldn't'' move in order to lure DIO closer to him, leaving him in perfect range to be attacked. By the time DIO figures this out, Jotaro has already put [[TorsoWithAView a fist through DIO's torso]]]]. DIO outright lampshades it.

* ''Series/{{Hustle}}''. All the time. If it's obvious how the scam works ten minutes in, you can bet your life that's just what TheMark is ''supposed'' to think he's supposed to think.

** "The Three-Card Monte Job" shows that Nate learned it from his father and TheMark of the episode, Jimmy Ford. As a child, Jimmy would keep challenging Nate to find the queen in [[ShellGame the titular game]] in order to teach him this concept. In the present day Jimmy is working with the Russian mob [[spoiler: to stage three bank robberies so that while the police are scrambling to respond the robberies, the Russians can retrieve their seized goods from te evidence locker, and Jimmy can retrieve the ledger of the Irish mob he used to work for. Nate pulls one back on him when it turns out that instead of killing him or letting him go free, he called up the mob in advance and told them Jimmy was planning to blackmail them, forcing Jimmy out of town in order to escape the mob now out for his blood.]]
** "The Boiler Room Job" is one huge Shuffle, though it's called something else (see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4 this link]]). The team couldn't con TheMark, because he knew every con and every con man in the country...so they distracted him with an elaborate Big Store con, knowing he'd see right through it, and forget that Hardison was waiting with a trace on his bank account. They even called it the Moonwalking Bear. The guy can't believe they'd just steal from him and even as he's dragged out by the Feds, is convinced they have to be part of the con.

* President Snow pulls off a version of this in ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Mockingjay]]''. He is holding Peeta captured and shows him off on TV, letting Katniss understand that anything she does to help the rebellion will result in torture for Peeta, thereby attempting - and succeeding - to make it impossible for her to be the Mockingjay. Once District 13's leader Alma Coin realizes that Katniss is useless to their cause so long as she's worried sick about Peeta she sends in a team to retrieve him and take that ace out of Snow's deck. Turns out this is what Snow wanted them to do all along, as the torture he inflicted on Peeta included hijacking, a method of brainwashing that essentially turned Peeta into a human terminator focused only on killing Katniss.

---> '''Garak:''' And the more they deny it, the more the Romulans will think that they are guilty, because it is ''exactly'' what they would have done in their place.

** Aria seems to do it at least half-accidentally to White during "52F - Battle Royale". She's using her time-manipulation abilities to be able to dodge his sword, which is both a normally AlwaysAccurateAttack and simply faster than she is. He starts to suspect she's kicking a lot to direct attention to her legs when it's really her left arm that's important because it holds the time device. So he cuts off her left arm. Unfortunately for him, it's her left arm ''being attacked'' and reverted back to normal with time manipulation that gives her the extra time she uses.

->''"A con man doesn't choose to play the shell game with you if there is '''any''' possibility of him actually losing. The con isn't in getting you to pick the wrong shell. The con is in getting you to accept that the basic premise of the game is still being followed. The con is in getting you to pick a shell '''at all'''. The ball isn't under the first shell...or the second shell...or even the third shell. The ball is in the con man's palm the whole time."''

A con can be complicated without being a Kansas City Shuffle, and not all Kansas City Shuffles are complicated. It's also not a Kansas City Shuffle just because the mark goes into the situation aware that ''something'' dishonest is going on: most cons are built around convincing the mark that they have an opportunity to benefit from something a bit under the table. To qualify as a Kansas City Shuffle, the mark has to think they've figured out how the con works and — by attempting to outmaneuver or outsmart it — walk right into the ''real'' trap.

** A more minor case in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E06SacrificeOfAngels Sacrifice of Angels]]". Quark and Ziyal are there to deliver a hasperat souffle to a set of prisoners. The guard suspects a JailBake combined with EndangeredSouffle, but as he suspiciously pokes at it, Ziyal slips behind him unnoticed and [[InstantSedation injects him with a hypospray, knocking him out]].

* ''Film/SupermanII'': Superman, at the Fortress of Solitude, renders Zod, Ursa and Non powerless. He whispers to Luthor a molecule chamber to depower Kryptonians, who warns him not to go inside. Superman goes into a chamber, which actually shields him from the effects of the red solar rays, which unbeknownst to Zod, Ursa, and Non, deprives them of their Kryptonian super powers. As soon as General Zod demands that Superman [[KneelBeforeZod pledge his loyalty to him]], the Man of Steel crushes Zod's now-mortal body, and his partners-in-crime meet their demise soon afterwards. Superman then reveals that he was aware of Luther's trechery, despite Luther's insistance that he was helping him.

* In the ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' novel Literature/CardsOnTheTable'', Poirot asks one of the murder suspects a leading question, trying to get her to admit that she knew where the murder weapon was before the crime was committed. She deftly claims not to have noticed the weapon, whereupon Poirot nods and smiles and asks her to help him pick out some appropriate presents for his nieces back in Belgium. [[spoiler: Poirot ''has'' no nieces back in Belgium; by asking the suspect to help choose presents - some of which have disappeared by the time she's done - he tricks her into demonstrating she's a compulsive thief, and thus reveals her motive for committing a ''previous'' murder.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Peter-assment" has Peter's boss, Angela, sexually harassing him until Peter snaps at her, pushing her to attempt suicide; after rescuing her, Peter realizes he must have sex with her to stop her feeling so lonely, which he finds disgusting. Donning a disguise, he then takes her on a date as "Peter's friend," but refuses to have sex with her due to a weak excuse; soon buckling under pressure, he finally agrees to have sex with her, after which Angela confides she knew it was Peter, much to his horror. It turns out Peter counted on her seeing through his disguise and pushing him into sex, as he prepared by paying Mort to hide in the front of his clothes; by thus making Mort have sex with her, Angela's confidence would be repaired, and Peter would be spared the trauma.
* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'', [[HarmlessVillain Jack Spicer]] of all people pulls this off. He sends in a robot clone of Kimiko to thwart the Xiaolin Dragons and steal their Shen Gong Wu. Omi identifies and destroys the clone, but it's too late - [[XanatosGambit while the Dragons were distracted, Jack snuck in and out of the vault with the Wu, leaving them at a sudden and major disadvantage]]. [[TeamRocketWins A rare moment of sheer triumph for Jack]].
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Steve pulls an ''Ocean's Eleven''-style heist to rob a rich boy's Bar Mitzvah for revenge for stealing his girlfriend. This trope came into effect when he made the boy think he was going to steal his presents, but was actually after his Bar Mitzvah money.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Plankton's Army," a robot made to look like a customer enters the Krusty Krab right after Mr. Krabs warns his employees that Plankton will probably make another attempt to steal the secret Krabby Patty formula. Mr. Krabs is instantly suspicious and takes the robot's order himself, but much to his surprise, the robot turns down the offer of a Krabby Patty and orders chili coral bits instead, which it pays for with a real dollar. It turns out that Plankton was hiding inside the dollar bill itself, and he quickly jumps out and demands that Krabs hand over the formula. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for Plankton, he has no means of actually forcing Krabs to give up the formula, so he gets flushed down the toilet for his trouble.]]

* A fairly regular occurrence in Jim Butcher's ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''.
** In ''Literature/WhiteNight'', Lara Raith suggested to a member of another family in [[HornyDevils the White Court]] that they should kill off weak female magical practitioners. She did this so that she could rope the other White Court family into the scheme because she knew that eventually Harry Dresden would get involved and generally smash everyone in sight before he realized she came up with the whole thing. He didn't realize until he'd already played straight into the plot because what this amounted to was ''[[TheChessmaster a ruler of a vampire court deliberately getting their minions to try to supplant the ruler]]'' and then having them destroyed without having to lift a finger herself. And nearly dying in the process due to interference by [[TheManBehindTheMan Cowl's]] [[EldritchAbomination Outsider]] ghouls, but hey, no plan is perfect, right?
** In ''Literature/SmallFavor'', the Order of the Blackened Denarius kidnap a freeholding lord, a recent signatory to the Unseelie Accords, simultaneously threatening that lord, disrupting his power base, and placing the Order in violation of the Accords (thus challenging the weakened White Council to choose risking a multi-front war if they enforce the Accords, and offending the Unseelie Court if they don't). Harry manipulates the White Council into acting, selecting a particular character as arbiter which is what the Order wanted, as it made her vulnerable to a kidnap attempt.
*** There's a less visible example (because it doesn't involve the protagonists) going on at the same time. There's an ongoing power struggle which resumes any time most of the Order get together, and while this plot stands to benefit the entire Order at each stage Nicodemus is clearly either increasing his own influence or setting up potential future problems for rivals. This is obvious to the rest of the Order, as is that they're all being given rope to oppose or betray his "side" without really ruining the plot, implying he's in some way preparing a personal "traitor sweep". What's ''not'' obvious is that the situation's set up to look for a member of the Order sabotaging the ''entire plot'' to do irreparable damage to their mutual goals - he suspects Outsider infiltration, and the situation is designed to spur such an infiltrator to act; nobody will be willing to get together afterwards to honestly compare who did what when if the damage looks like the fallout of "normal" betrayals. While it's unclear how much good it does him, Nicodemus walks away from the affair with confirmation of this and the identity of their puppet.
** In ''Literature/SkinGame'', Mab charges Harry with repaying a debt to Nicodemus Archleone by helping him steal the Holy Grail from Hades' vault in the Underworld, along with a crew of other people Nicodemus hired for the job. After setting it up, Mab tells Harry that it's a setup: she only intends for Harry to help him get the Grail; she never said anything about what Harry would do after he got his hands on it. Both Harry and Nicodemus figure that the other is going to betray him as soon as Nicodemus obtains the Grail, so Harry asks for a second person to watch his back, while Nicodemus has secretly given Coins to Hannah Ascher and the Genoskwa (Lasciel and Ursiel, respectively), and hired Goodman Grey for the secondary reason of helping him kill Harry when it comes time. However, it is later revealed that Harry figured out that Grey was the only person Nicodemus could hire to get access to the location where the Way to Hades' vault could be opened, and secretly hired him first, with the purpose of turning on Nicodemus after he got the Grail. The resulting brouhaha leaves Nicodemus defeated and alone, with Deirdre dead by his hand (to get through the Gate of Blood), his power broken, and his reputation destroyed. Sure, he got the Grail, but he lost the item he really wanted: the knife that Christ was stabbed with while he was on the Cross, along with three other artifacts. It turns out the whole plot was a scheme by Mab and John Marcone, with Uriel and Hades' help, to get back at Nicodemus for the events of ''Small Favor''.
** ''Literature/{{Battle Ground|2020}}'': It's revealed right before the epilogue that the entire [[BigBadassBattleSequence battle between Ethniu and the Formor against Mab, the Accorded Nations, and the people of Chicago]] was a huge example of this being played on Harry himself. The plan was to keep the latter utterly distracted by placing every person he cares about in mortal danger so he wouldn't [[spoiler: realize that taking Justine as his guest to Demonreach so she could see Thomas would allow [[GreaterScopeVillain Nemesis]] (who is [[DemonicPossession possessing]] her) to use her as a TrojanHorse to accomplish what the Outsiders failed to do in ''Cold Days'': bring TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt by releasing Demonreach's apocalyptic prisoners.]] It's only thanks to Harry connecting the dots before [[spoiler: he and Justine could arrive at the island]] that the worst didn't come to pass.

* Most of the goings on in the ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' involve the good and evil chessmasters Geser and Zabulon (respectively) using the protagonist Anton as an UnwittingPawn to pull off one of these. Typically, Geser tells Anton to do "w" and Zabulon will have a scheme trying to force Anton to do "x". Anton [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]] and does "y", which is what Zabulon actually wanted him to choose. However, when things go well, Geser is able to pull off "z" which was his plan all along and which wouldn't have worked had he not instructed Anton to do "w".
* In ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms''.
** Zhuge Liang's "Empty Fortress Strategy", which relied on Sima Yi thinking that Zhuge Liang was not [[RefugeInAudacity willing to take such a risk as revealing an actual weakness.]] (Sima Yi's son Zhao saw through it but was overruled, and in any case Zhuge Liang admitted that he would have been completely screwed had Sima Yi drawn the same conclusion.)
** Used as part of Cao Cao's HumiliationConga. Cao Cao, while fleeing from ambush after ambush, comes to a fork in the road. On one fork, is a quantity of smoke, as if from an army's cooking fires. That is the fork that Cao Cao takes, as he knows that his opponent is too smart to really allow his position to be given away like that. Of course, his opponents knew that Cao Cao would head towards the smoke, so the path Cao Cao took had an ambush waiting.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Ringworld}} Ringworld's Children]]'', protector-stage Louis Wu intentionally reveals the existence of his son Wembleth to Tunesmith just before escaping, thus leading Tunesmith to believe that Louis is going to try to smuggle Wembleth off the Ringworld and leaving Tunesmith with no way to control Louis (since Wembleth's life is the leverage Tunesmith has over Louis, or so Tunesmith thinks). Louis's actual plan is to smuggle himself and the Hindmost off the Ringworld and out of Tunesmith's control, since he (Louis) believes that hiding amongst the Ringworld's billions of inhabitants is actually the safest place for Wembleth to be.
* [[{{Chessmaster}} Ardneh]], from the ''Empire of the East'' trilogy by Creator/FredSaberhagen loves to use this one. For example, in the first book, he lets Ekuman know that finding and controlling the mysterious "Elephant" super-weapon is the key to holding or losing the west coast. Ekuman concludes that the resistance plans to find the Elephant and use it to destroy him, and not unreasonably decides that he has to get it first. That turns out to be exactly how Ardneh liberates the entire west coast. In the second book, the demon Zapranoth worries that Ardneh might find out where his [[SoulJar life is hidden]], so he moves it to where he can better keep an eye on it and guard it. That turns out to be exactly how Ardneh destroys it. In the third book, Ardneh becomes much more powerful than ever before, which leads Wood and John Ominor to conclude that Ardneh will use that power to destroy [[TheEmpire their empire]], so they free the demon-king [[SealedEvilInACan Orcus]], the only force powerful enough to stop Ardneh. That enables Ardneh to destroy both Orcus and the entire empire, along with most of the world's most powerful demons, in a [[ThanatosGambit single stroke]].
* ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'': Locke Lamora attempts this one when he cons a nobleman into giving him money for a business venture. Two members of the Duke's secret police contact Locke's mark to alert him that his new business partner is actually a con man. The mark won't investigate Locke or their joint business venture any more since he knows it's all a scam, but at the same time Locke keeps receiving money because the mark is told that the police is about to make an arrest and if the money stops Locke will flee with all the money he already has. Obviously there will be no arrest, because the "secret police" is actually Locke and his accomplice.
* In ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'', the vampyres are well-aware of Granny Weatherwax's skill at "Borrowing" (the ability to put a part of her mind into another creature). Even after they suck Granny's blood and try to turn her into a vampire, they suspect Granny's used Borrowing to put part of herself elsewhere, either in Magrat's newborn daughter or into wishy-washy priest Mightily Oats. It turns out, Granny put herself into ''her own blood'', meaning [[OutGambitted when the Magpyr clan members drank her blood, she was ready to tear down their mental defenses from the inside]] once she shrugged off the vampirism by HeroicWillpower.
* [[BoxedCrook Moist Von Lipwig]], the protagonist of ''Literature/GoingPostal'' and ''Literature/MakingMoney'', is rather fond of this. In ''Postal'' he reminisces on using this with one of his old alternate identities, "lack-of-confidence trickster" Edwin Streep:

** Moist does this later on in the Clacks vs. Post race against the Grand Trunk. He knows that the Trunk's chairman, Reacher Gilt, is just as much a conman as he, so he provides him with a fake con to foil. First he turns up to the race with a broomstick that has silver stars painted on it, making it seem like it is a magic broomstick and he intends to win the race by flying. When Gilt points out that this is against the rules, Lipwig points out that each Clacks tower has a horse available to deliver messages when the towers break, and that using them would be cheating as well. Thus both methods are disqualified. Gilt naturally assumes that this was Moist's plan all along, but in actuality he doesn't intend to "win" at all. At the time his plan was to alter the message to one that deigned to damage the mechanisms in the tower, and it could be countered if they sent horses to warn later towers. He ends up changing the message along the way to reveal the Trunk's treachery in front of everyone, disguised as a message from beyond the grave, instead.
** Another that he does in the story is act desperate and try to pawn a diamond. The victim then tries to rip him off, but he palms it and substitutes a fake at the last second. At one point he tries to argue to his parole officer that it shouldn't count as wrong if the victim thought they were conning ''him'', but nobody's buying it.
** Gilt is using a variant. The board of the Clacks know he helped them steal the company and that the way he's running it is intended to milk it of profits in the short term; this keeps them from realizing that he's robbing them blind.
* In "Literature/TheAcquisitiveChuckle" (the first of Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Black Widowers'' mysteries), the protagonist had been bankrupted by his crooked business partner, who was also an inveterate collector with more stuff than he could keep track of. The protagonist was seen leaving the ex-partner's house with a briefcase, while chuckling in the exact same way the ex-partner always did after acquiring something in a not-entirely-honest way. For years, the ex-partner went nuts trying to figure out just what had been stolen. What did the protagonist take? Only [[ParanoiaGambit the ex-partner's peace of mind]]. The briefcase was empty.
* The Creator/AugustDerleth short-short story, "A Battle Over the Teacups" is entirely about a Kansas City Shuffle. An elderly Chinese dignitary traveling on a train is accosted by a warlord who wants him dead. The dignitary offers tea, and openly adds a sweetener to his own cup. Then his niece (who is traveling with him) drops a tray and while the warlord is distracted, the dignitary clumsily pours something into the warlord's cup. The warlord insists that they trade cups before drinking. The dignitary objects, but finally acquiesces, and they trade cups and drink. The warlord is found dead in his compartment the next day -- the "sweetener" was the poison, and the "poison" was simple sugar. By insisting on the cup trade, the warlord gave himself the poisoned cup.
* In ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'', the President of the United States invents a convoluted device that would be used to kill flies. It is basically a walkway mounted on two miniature ladders on each side, with a cube of sugar hanging from the center of the walkway. As the President explains, the fly would climb up the first ladder and would be traversing the walkway when it would catch sight of the sugar cube and become tempted by it; just before it decided to make its way down the hanging string to eat the sugar, however, it would realize that there is a bowl of water directly beneath the hanging cube, meaning that the fly would drown if it fell. As a result, the fly would continue walking over to the second ladder, feeling smug that it had avoided the water trap - until it started to descend the second ladder and fell to its death because the President had left off one of the ladder's rungs near the top. (Also counts as AwesomeButImpractical.) It's parodious, too, since flies obviously aren't smart enough for such an overelaborate trick to work, and they can't fall to their deaths because they can, y'know, ''fly''.
* In ''Carcinoma Angels'' [[MartyStu Harrison Wintergreen]] reverses the Mexican joke above. He drives his very nice car into Tijuana and buys some marijuana from a local. When he then crosses back into the USA, he's stopped and searched by the border guards who have, of course, been tipped off by Wintergreen's connection. They don't find the marijuana, which he threw away earlier, so they let him go, having just smuggled a very nice car into Mexico, sold it for several times what he paid for it and not paid a cent of import duty or capital gains tax.[[note]] Don't try this at home, kids. Nowadays, if you get searched by border guards and they find a large amount of cash concealed somewhere about your person, they will confiscate the money and force you to prove you came by it legally. Spoilsports.[[/note]]
* President Snow pulls off a version of this in [[Literature/TheHungerGames Mockingjay]]. He is holding Peeta captured and shows him off on TV, letting Katniss understand that anything she does to help the rebellion will result in torture for Peeta, thereby attempting - and succeeding - to make it impossible for her to be the Mockingjay. Once District 13's leader Alma Coin realizes that Katniss is useless to their cause so long as she's worried sick about Peeta she sends in a team to retrieve him and take that ace out of Snow's deck. Turns out this is what Snow wanted them to do all along, as the torture he inflicted on Peeta included hijacking, a method of brainwashing that essentially turned Peeta into a human terminator focused only on killing Katniss.

* In ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' Endon's wife does this against his treacherous adviser. While they're on the top floor of a tall tower, she glances out the window and reacts as if she'd seen something, and then very unconvincingly claims she saw nothing. When the advisor moves over to the window to check, [[DestinationDefenestration she shoves him out of the window and to his death]]. She really did see nothing, but she knew that he wouldn't accept that.
* In ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'', the BigBad's plan hinges on Nikita realizing that someone close to her is in danger, but thinking that it's one of her friends rather than her mother.
* In the ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' novel "Cards on the Table", Poirot asks one of the murder suspects a leading question, trying to get her to admit that she knew where the murder weapon was before the crime was committed. She deftly claims not to have noticed the weapon, whereupon Poirot nods and smiles and asks her to help him pick out some appropriate presents for his nieces back in Belgium. [[spoiler: Poirot ''has'' no nieces back in Belgium; by asking the suspect to help choose presents - some of which have disappeared by the time she's done - he tricks her into demonstrating she's a compulsive thief, and thus reveals her motive for committing a ''previous'' murder.]]

* If a hand in any part of ''Literature/BridgeInTheMenagerie'' is shown from the viewpoint of Papa the Greek, and his opponent is the Hideous Hog, the reader can be certain that the Hog is running a hustle against the Greek in some fashion. Both are expert players that know all sort of clever tricky plays, but the Hog is very consistently the winner at being able to predict which tricky play is actually happening between the two. Part of the fun for the reader is trying to figure out the Hog's actual hand before the play of the hand is finished.
* Taurau pulls one on Sabrina in ''Literature/Birthright2017'' during a game of Catur. He fools her into thinking he's using a beginner's strategy. Being a more advanced player, Sabrina immediately starts playing the counter-strategy--which Taurau's ''real'' strategy is designed to counter. [[spoiler: The game is used to foreshadow [[BigBad Ko-Kraham]] pulling a similar strategy.]]
* Emotional Allomancy in ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' either amplifies or weakens existing emotions in the target, and are commonly used to influence others. However, if the mark knows that they're being influenced, they'll probably reject any suggestions the Allomancer would make, which would also open the mark to reverse psychology, or reverse reverse psychology. Breeze, a known Soother, keeps his marks guessing on what he's doing.
** Wayne pulls one on a gondolier in the sequel ''Literature/WaxAndWayne''. He wants to ride to a certain part of the city, so he dresses and acts like a rich lord, asking for the gondolier's service for the whole day for an inflated fee. His first request is to go to a bad part of the city, and he lets the accent slip from posh to slightly thuggish. The gondolier suspects that he's a mugger in disguise setting him up for a robbery, and quickly drops him off at the nearest port before rushing off--not bothering to ask for the fare.
** This is how the ''Literature/BandsOfMourning'' are guarded. [[spoiler:At the center of the TempleOfDoom, behind a [[DeathCourse hallway filled with traps]] is an ornate throne room. It appears to have been ransacked years ago, but investigating reveals that the treasure was never there. Falling into a safe pitfall trap reveals a second, plain chamber with a simple set of Bands, tricking you into thinking that you were too smart to take the decoy. Those Bands are also fake. The trick wasn't to make you stop looking, it was to make you explore the deadly temple in the first place. The ''real'' "Bands" are HiddenInPlainSight right outside of the temple: it's the spearhead on the statue. Not for nothing was the builder the greatest ConMan in the Final Empire]]...
* ''Literature/SirAproposOfNothing'': Apropos' army advances on a fort held by the Mad King Meander and sees Meander singing alone atop the wall, apparently repeating the same [[UsefulNotes/TheThirtySixStratagems Empty Fort Gambit]] that ''Apropos himself'' had helped him pull off in the previous book. Delighted that Meander has apparently lost the last of his wits along with the last of his army, Apropos orders his troops towards the gates... and Meander's army, camouflaged in the mud of the battlefield, rise up behind them.
* ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheNecromancer'': Having fallen one short in his wager with Satan to collect 100 souls in exchange for [[TheSoulless the return of his own]], Johannes tries to renegotiate with the box of 99 signed contracts. Satan expects a hustle, immediately sees through his offer of "the box", and insists on the ''contents'' of the box, which Cabal reluctantly accepts. Only later does Satan realize that Johannes had already removed the two soul contracts he actually wanted.
* ''Literature/RangersApprentice'': After challenging [[BlackKnight Deparnieux]] to a duel, Halt practices shooting arrows through a helmet balanced on a lance as Horace rides toward him at full gallop. The two see Deparnieux watching them at it, and Halt does stick to that method in the first part of the duel. Deparnieux, an experienced fighter, changes from a full charge to a slower approach with his shield up to deflect arrows from his face, smugly confident he has thwarted Halt's plan. Then the ranger lets fly with a special arrow designed to pierce armor and hits him in the chest before he knows what's happening.

* Creator/PennAndTeller:
** The Red Ball Trick. Penn tells you beforehand ''how the trick is done'' (with a thread) and then storms offstage. Then for three and a half minutes you watch Teller and a red ball while you try in vain to spot the thread. Most people conclude that it's a "sucker" trick (see above), i.e. that there's actually no thread and the ball is controlled in some other way. The fact is that Teller is just ''that good''; he's rehearsed it so much that even when you know the gimmick you can't ''see'' him doing it. Some other magicians have said that the trick is ''even more'' impressive to them, since they know how he's doing it and ''still'' can't catch him at it.
** At Penn and Teller's Las Vegas stage show, they will often remind you that the tricks they're doing aren't necessarily the tricks you think they're doing. This still doesn't stop you from being caught out, though.
** Some of the magicians performing on ''Series/PennAndTellerFoolUs'' attempt this by developing a new technique for a well-known illusion, but then performing it in a way that deliberately makes it look like they are using one (or more) of the well-known techniques, rather than the new technique. When Penn starts describing the well-known techniques, they can honestly say that they did not use those techniques to perform the illusion.
** In one episode there's a sword swallower who, well, swallows a sword (first a straight one, then a curvy one). In perhaps a ''reverse'' case of the trope, he didn't win. He was ''very'' good but Penn, who had done a sword swallowing act himself in the past, explained that while he was extremely impressed by the guy's technique, it wasn't a "trick" because he ''actually did'' everything he said he was doing and there was no illusion or sleight-of-hand involved at all.

* ''VideoGame/ExitFate'' has several characters who love to construct plans that involve [[FeedTheMole deliberately leaking information to the enemy]]. When two of them team up, they ensure that their ruse will be believed despite their known history of using that tactic by leaking ''two'' reports- the enemy commander assumes that the one which was obtained more easily was misdirection, and that therefore the other information, which required far more effort to obtain, is trustworthy.
* Chzo's plans in the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' ultimately [[TheBadGuyWins go off without a hitch]] because everyone misunderstood what it wanted. [[spoiler:Everyone in the story, from the good guys to the bad guys, thought Chzo wanted to invade our world and caused endless amounts of pain and suffering, since what else would an EldritchAbomination want with us? Actually, all Chzo really wanted was a new servant after the old servant caught wind of this and sought to stop his own replacement.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'', Bishop Mandible traps Bobbin in a cage, but doesn't take the magical distaff Bobbin carries. Big mistake, right? Not quite -- Mandible is actually after the [[MagicMusic Draft of Opening]]. He watches Bobbin cast the spell to unlock the cage and ''then'' takes the distaff.
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'', Snake [[spoiler: rescues Paz only to find she has a huge abdominal scar, as XOF tricked him into saving her while she had a bomb inside of her. Extracting the bomb without killing her, she awakens a scene later to explain she has a ''second'' bomb inside of her, as XOF knew Snake wouldn't expect it]].

* In ''Webcomic/GoblinHollow'', during the bank robbery arc (more or less starting [[http://www.rhjunior.com/GH/00166.html HERE,]] Ben and Lily get entangled in a bank heist which is only part of the guest villain's double and possibly triple-fakeout plot which involves multiple simultaneous armed robberies, a mysterious pearl necklace, a jade box full of Boggarts and an army of mooks in clown suits...

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Magus attempts to convince [[ActuallyNotAVampire abberation]] Sirleck to help him in his plan to regain a body. Because of the danger, Sirleck is disinclined to help. Magus appears to try to tempt Sirleck into helping anyway by [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2010-08-13 offering him his services as a powerful wizard]], and in the end, making an appeal to Sirleck's conscience that reveals that once he returns, he will be utterly alone and friendless, and Sirleck will have him in his debt. Sirleck, who is looking for a new body to inhabit, notices that Magus would make a fantastic new host, and so agrees, planning to double-cross Magus once he has a corporeal body again. However, Magus is quite prepared for that [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2018-03-19 when it happens]], [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2018-03-23 pointing out that the fact he'd never asked Sirleck who he was planning to inahbit next "should have been a red flag"]]. Magus *appeared* to be dangling the debt as an incentive, but it was actually his expectation all along that Sirleck would actually take the bait of a body of someone who was friendless, undocumented, and obscenely powerful.
* ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'': The climax of "Torg Potter and the Chamberpot of Secretions" has the BigBad forcing Torg to make a wish from a JackassGenie who has so far interpreted everyone's wishes to mean "turn me into chocolate." Torg makes the wish "Turn Torg Potter into chocolate." The villain thinks he's trying to use ReversePsychology and thus orders the djinn to do exactly as he asked. Thus, Torg ends up being the first one not turned into chocolate, because he's not really Torg ''Potter'', even though everyone thinks so.

* [[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Oinkbane Oinkbane the Were-hog assassin]], whose tactics (which are [[{{Battlecry}} too subtle for you]]) are nearly parodic versions of these. You'll know he's after you, you'll see an idiotically obvious ploy right in front of you, and right as you make a move to put an end to his shenanigans he'll get you from a different and utterly unexpected angle, and end you [[DropTheHammer with a giant mallet]]. As an example, he'll [[HighlyVisibleNinja hide inside a crate labeled "NOT AN ASSASSIN" whose contents are breathing]], and when you move to open the crate it'll turn out to pack a sheep; Oinkbane will then roll out from under your bed and crush your head into paste.

* During the "Ship Happens" episode of ''WebVideo/OutsideXbox'' D&D Oxventure campaign, the group is hired by an ObviouslyEvil group of cultists, who ostensibly hire the Oxventure to entertain them during a bachelor party headed for a destination wedding. The group fully suspects the cultists are trying to do something evil and attempt to thwart the cultists while keeping the itinerary to be above suspicion. [[spoiler:The itinerary ends up being the five parts of the ritual needed to summon their dark god from the depths.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Law and Oracle" has one when Fry is told of a future crime he has to solve. An oracle robot called "Pickles" gives Fry [[EitherOrProphecy the prediction that one of the following will happen:]] '''1. He will shoot Bender''', causing him to destroy the [[MacGuffin Maltese Liquor]] and die. '''2. He won't shoot Bender''', but Bender will share the priceless alcohol with Planet Express, killing everyone due to its lethality. Fry attempts to pick neither, but Pickles appears at the crime and reveals it wasn't a prediction, but a set-up. After Fry accidentally shoots Bender, Pickles shoots Fry and drinks the real liquor to kill his human brain, thus removing his psychic abilities ([[PrescienceIsPredictable being unable to stand seeing the future]]), however, it is then revealed that the prediction came true simply because Fry figured out Pickles was the mastermind ([[OOCIsSeriousBusiness due to the inconsistency of Bender sharing]]) and thus set up Pickles' con, causing Pickles to lose his oracle powers and allowing them to arrest him.
* Cartman pulls this off in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die". Cartman is scammed out of some money by Scott, and after several failed attempts to counter Scott's initial con, Cartman brags to Stan and Kyle about his ultimate plan to train a pony to bite Scott's penis off in front of his favorite band, Music/{{Radiohead}}, whom he has invited to a local Chili Cookoff. Cartman actually counts on Stan and Kyle to "sabotage" him by informing Scott of the plan, and counts on Scott to try to get rid of the pony (but not to risk getting his penis bit off by going himself). Scott tells his parents a pony is being abused and has them try to "rescue" it. However, Cartman has already tipped off the farmer who owns the pony that there are two sickos going around at night killing ponies for kicks, and the farmer resolves to shoot anyone who tries it with his pony. After Scott's parents are shot and killed, Cartman steals their bodies and grinds them into mincemeat, cooks them into chili, and feeds them to Scott. After the plan succeeds, he gloats about it to Scott (who is further humiliated when Radiohead shows up and mock his emotional breakdown without knowing the full story behind it), and the rest of the cast vow not to mess with Cartman in the future.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In the episode "The Book Job", Bart and Homer form a gang to make big bucks in the field of YA lit. They con the publisher, who one-ups them by recruiting Lisa. Who actually takes their side. But none of them should have trusted team ButtMonkey Creator/NeilGaiman. Bart and Homer even refer to a NoodleIncident known only as [[NameDrop Kansas City.]]
** Sideshow Bob does one in Funeral for a Fiend; he sets up a fake restaurant and pretends that that's his plan to kill The Simpson's once and for all. It turns out it's all a fake to get to court again to make everyone think Bart killed him by throwing away his heart medicine.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'':
** The BigBad group "The Light" regularly uses the superheroes' attempts to "stop the evil plan" to further their real machinations. In "Usual Suspects" for instance, The Light stages an attack on the heroes so the good guys will bring dangerous devices the Light's agents are carrying at the time to their secret base to stop the Light from getting to them. The Light promptly uses the devices to take the heroes' secret base over.
** The good guys manage this too in the second season. While all their minor attempts to thwart The Light fail, they've had a mole (and later upped to two moles) on the Light for the whole season who [[spoiler: have been recording everything and waiting for the right moment to publicly broadcast that footage while also sowing discord within The Light]] with the shuffle's only flaw being the members of the team who didn't know about the plan almost causing it to go OffTheRails a few times. It still all finally comes together in "Summit" and it's a thing of beauty.

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* In ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders]]'', Jotaro uses a set of magnets to trick DIO [[spoiler: into thinking he can [[MoveInTheFrozenTime move while DIO has stopped time]]]]. DIO laughs at having figured out the trick so easily... [[spoiler: except Jotaro wasn't trying to trick him into thinking he ''could'' move during stopped time, but rather was trying to trick DIO into thinking that Jotaro ''couldn't'' move in order to lure DIO closer to him, leaving him in perfect range to be attacked. By the time DIO figures this out, Jotaro has already put [[TorsoWithAView a fist through DIO's torso]]]]. DIO outright lampshades it.

* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', Negi pulls one off in his fight against Rakan. [[spoiler:He blitzes him with superspeed and while Rakan can't keep up with Negi hitting him from every angle at the speed of lightning, he can't get through Rakan's defenses. However, at this time he also sets up a spell circle around the two of them by using his attacks as a disguise since Rakan can't actually keep track of what he's doing anyway. After that he challenges Rakan to a show of strength and while Rakan assumes Negi will either throw a lightning spear at him or nullify Rakan's attack with Asuna's sword, he actually does nothing but activate the spell circle he'd set up beforehand so he could absorb the attack and increase his offenses enough to actually hurt Rakan.]]
* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' Xellos has relied on Lina distrusting him to betray her, letting her concerns with how he'll double-cross her cover up how he'll double-cross her.

* Early in ''Anime/CodeGeass'' season 2, Lelouch pulls one on Rolo starting off as a ScheherezadeGambit after Rolo has cornered him with a gun to the head. Lelouch offers to bring Rolo CC. Rolo of course assumes that Lelouch is just trying to con Rolo into letting Lelouch escape, but given that Rolo has the power to stop time he plays along, figuring he can kill CC and Lelouch when they try to double-cross him. Lelouch instead engineers a situation (as part of XanatosGambit) in which he ''saves'' Rolo's life and then to top it off gives CC to him, [[BatmanGambit knowing]] that Rolo's desire for family will cause him to have a HeelFaceTurn if he believes [[MagnificentBastard Lelouch]] actually cares about him.
** It actually becomes a major plot point later, because the con was SO effective, that even when Lelouch explicitly told Rolo everything he said was lies, Rolo doesn't actually believe him and winds up sacrificing himself to allow Lelouch to escape.
** His ''father'' does the same. As far as everyone knows, he's ruling TheEmpire and setting up to TakeOverTheWorld. [[spoiler: No one knows about the [[AssimilationPlot Ragnarok Connection]] he's cooking up behind the scene as no one has any idea that's his true goal. Lelouch had five minutes to come up with a counter to it.]]
* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Testing the thirteen-day rule: [[spoiler:1) L suspects that Light and Misa are plotting to kill him. 2) L believes that he can expose them first if he tests the notebook and disproves the thirteen-day rule. 3) L declares his intentions to test the notebook... and is promptly killed by Rem. Light was never actually planning to kill L himself, because he knew that if he let L drive him into a corner, Rem would be forced to intervene to protect Misa.]]
* In Episode 8 of ''Literature/TheHeroicLegendOfArslan'', Narsus pulls off a textbook example. He sends a peasant to Kharlan's camp, claiming that he was attacked by the heroes and saw them head south. Kharlan tells his troops to head north, into unfavorable terrain, believing that he has seen through Narsus' plot to lure him south. As it turns out, this is part of Narsus' plan to capture Kharlan.
* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'': During Class 3-E's island assassination attempt, Koro-sensei uses his keen sense of smell to deduce that Chiba and Hayami, the class' best snipers, plan to deliver the killing blow from a nearby mountain. [[spoiler:What he detected were dummies set up by the students to lure his attention away from the snipers' true hiding spot underneath the ocean.]]
* In one episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', Ash and the gang discover a plate of delicious-looking fruit sitting in the middle of the road. Ash starts for it, but Misty points out that it's clearly a trap by Team Rocket, and besides, there are perfectly safe fruit trees to the side of the road anyway. They go to the trees, laughing at how dumb Team Rocket was to try to trick them that way... only to fall into the trap Team Rocket set in front of the trees.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** In Alabasta, the Baroque Works Officer Agents need to keep Vivi away from the Rebels so she can't warn them about their organization's plot to use the rebellion to take over the kingdom. They seem a group of cloaked figures all riding Supersonic Ducks like Vivi's TeamPet Karoo. The agents split up to pursue each figure, and only learn too late that it's just the Straw Hats, and the real Vivi was waiting for the Agents to leave their post.
** As part of their scheme to kill Big Mom, Luffy uses a captured Devil Fruit user to create an army of copies- and then reveals himself amid the chaos. With everyone focused on Luffy, no one is paying much attention to his doubles, allowing Brook, wearing a PaperThinDisguise, to sneak around and complete the first step of the assassination.
** ''[[Anime/OnePieceFilmGold Gold]]'' has a caper where they lead the mark to believe that the crew, minus Zoro and plus GuestStarPartyMember Carina, are trying to steal the Heavenly Tribute for the Celestial Dragons so they can buy Zoro's freedom. In reality, it's all a ruse to get Franky to connect the pipe system to seawater to wash away the gold controlled by Tesoro's Devil Fruit powers.
* In ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', a minor villain challenges Gon to a "simple" contest: he presents two candles, a long one and a short one, and allows Gon to pick one. Whoever's candle burns out first is the loser, and as other characters point out, it's obvious that there's a trick, but impossible to tell whether the longer candle has been tampered with, or if the lopsided choice is meant to trick Gon into falsely suspecting that it has. It turns out that the villain just has a second pair of candles down the back of his shirt and switches them out so he gives Gon an oil-soaked candle whichever he picks.
* In the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' print work, ''[[Manga/TouhouBougetsushou Silent Sinner in Blue]]'', Yukari pulls off a spectacular Kansas City Shuffle to stump Eirin and the Watatsukis. Specifically, [[spoiler: she manipulates Remilia into invading the moon with a highly visible rocket. Eirin warns the Watatsukis about this, while also warning them that Yukari herself was going to try to infiltrate the moon using that as a cover, believing that was Yukari's plan. Eirin ''is'' correct in figuring out Yukari's actions- but it turns out that ''Yukari herself was a decoy'' for the real thief, Yuyuko, to infiltrate the moon and steal a treasure.]]

* ''Manga/BungoStrayDogs'': Done to horrifying effect by Fyodor. He instigates a war between the Port Mafia and the ADA by getting both their leaders infected by a virus which will kill them both if one does not die within forty-eight hours. Instead of attacking the mafia as Fyodor wanted, Ranpo uses his Ultra Deduction [[TakeTheThirdOption to come up with another way out]], discovering the Ability user responsible for the virus in Suribachi City. Atsushi and Kunikida go to the man's hideout to force him to remove the virus, only for the confrontation to go horrifically wrong, culminating in a young girl killing herself in front of Kunikida. When they finally catch the culprit, he turns out to be a RedHerring planted by Fyodor, who predicted what Ranpo would do and planned everything out to break the ADA members emotionally.

* TabletopGame/{{Poker}} lends itself naturally to these. One example is for a player who is holding a strong hand to pull players into the pot. Since (smart) players should pull out from a pot if they know their opponent is strong, a player holding "the nuts" (an unbeatable hand) has to look like he isn't. A player who's bluffing is trying to scare everyone out of the pot and is lying. A player with a strong hand or the nuts could try to look like he's pulling one con (bluffing) while really hoping people "call his bluff." If that player has read books of tells, for example, he could purposefully try to act like a player with "normal" tells to look like he's bluffing. It works best against the half-smart. Really good players may have it figured out, and poker players know "bluffing a monkey," or pretending to bluff a monkey, is a waste of time.

* In ''[[ComicBook/{{Tintin}} The Blue Lotus]]'', after Tintin is broken out of a Shanghai prison on the eve of his execution, the Japanese authorities raise the alarm and intensify their watch at the city gates. When a Chinese cart loaded with rice sacks approaches, the suspicious guards run their bayonets through the sacks. Shortly after this, a Japanese armored car rolls up and tells the guards that Tintin escaped by hiding in one of the sacks. The lieutenant is confused as to how Tintin could have escaped this way. He didn't, of course: he was driving the armored car.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10917821/1/The-questionable-burdens-of-leadership-of-a-troll-Emperor The (Questionable) Burdens of Leadership of a Troll Emperor]]'' many of the more skeptical politicians (and people in general) on Earth think Naruto is using his obvious fun loving party boy demeanor to convince the world he's harmless so he can take over the world. In reality, his antics are to keep everyone from realizing his wife Xanna is already taking over Africa which they use as a foothold to take over the rest of the world, albeit mostly nonviolently.
* Saito refers to it as a shell game in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9421918/1/Soldier-of-Zero Soldier of Zero]]'' when he realizes that none of the attackers he's facing is the real one. Though he doesn't realize that ''Wardes'' is the real attacker.

* Naruto's trickier traps in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4573620/14/A-Drop-of-Poison A Drop of Poison]]'' cause someone to notice one "trap" and avoid it, triggering the real trap. Examples include a step that makes a click when stepped on with quick drying glue in the spot someone is most likely to jump towards to avoid the "trap", and several "explosive tags" that are actually just random marks on a piece of chakra charged paper which are spotted then maneuvered around right into actual traps.
* During the Rating Game between [[LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD Rias and Riser]] in ''Fanfic/HeroAcademiaDXD'', Yuuto sets up an obvious trap that Riser's pawns trigger and easily get rid of only to then end up triggering another trap that leaves them completely defenseless.
* In ''Fanfic/ButDoctorIAmPagliacci'', Jack/The Joker and his allies send several criminals to try and steal various pieces of time travel technology. As Superman/[[spoiler:Lex]] knows by now that Jack remembers the original timeline, so he obviously concludes they're trying to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and has every known time travel method locked down. However, it then turns out that the raids were meant to fail, as a distraction for Jack's real objective: stealing the Eradicator AI from the Fortress of Solitude.
* During the second book of ''FanFic/ChildOfTheStorm,'' Harry and his friends are trying to rescue [[spoiler: Carol from Dracula]]. However, the villain of the piece has already creamed Harry and his allies in a straight fight. So instead, Harry borrows power from Jean and [[spoiler: Maddie]] to pretend to be the Dark Phoenix, destroying his castle and leaving him paralyzed with fear. [[spoiler: Dracula]] figures it out after a few minutes...but doesn't realize until too late that [[SuperSpeed Jean-Paul]] has evacuated her and the Avengers are on the way.

* In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4521446/34/Deliveries this]] ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' fanfiction, Rufus Shinra and Godo Kisaragi are holding a tea ceremony, to be broadcast live as a publicity stunt. Yuffie is none too happy about this, and tries to sabotage the ceremony by stealing the special tea leaves while they're being transported. One wild goose chase with Cloud and the Turks later, she appears to succeed... until the Turks are informed that their mission was a success. Godo anticipated Yuffie's interference, and quietly held a ceremony with Rufus some time in advance. That ceremony was recorded and scheduled to be aired as 'live', making Yuffie strike at the wrong people at the wrong time.

* ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin'' uses the trope by name when explaining the type of con that Mr. Goodkat enacts; "...when everybody looks right, you go left." The antagonistic Boss and Rabbi both assume that Mr. Goodkat and his seeming patsy Slevin / "Nick Fisher" are being manipulated by their enemy to con them. Both proceed to attempt to bring in and manipulate Slevin themselves to exploit their enemy's con to their own advantage, only for the end of the film to reveal [[spoiler:the true con was being run by Slevin himself, who wanted access to both the Boss and the Rabbi to exact revenge for their murder of his parents decades earlier. As soon as they attempted to bring him in to stop the apparent con of their opponent, he'd already won.]]
* In ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', the Man in Black convinces Vizzini that he has placed poison in one of two cups of wine and asks him to choose. Vizzini quickly deduces that he cannot choose either cup with any degree of certainty, but also assumes that the Man in Black will surely not drink the wine that he knows is poisoned even if Vizzini chooses correctly. Vizzini distracts him for a moment and switches the cups, assuming the Man in Black will not hesitate to drink from the cup he thinks is unpoisoned. Vizzini thinks his gambit has succeeded when he makes his choice and the Man in Black starts drinking first. It turns out both cups were poisoned and the Man in Black is simply [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity immune]] to it.
* ''Film/OceansEleven'' and both sequels depend heavily on this to pull off their heists.
** ''Film/OceansTwelve'' less so, as they had won against Toulour before they'd even begun the real heist, they were really just doing it [[ItAmusedMe For The Lulz]] for him [[spoiler: and actually to reunite Lemarc with his lost daughter Detective Lahiri]].
** ''Film/OceansThirteen'' more so, as they knew Benedict would double-cross them once they brought him in and he made an outrageous demand for seemingly petty reasons and no want of the reward, and had already prepared for it long before Toulour even showed up.
* In the 2003 movie ''Film/JohnnyEnglish'', Pascal Sauvage toys around with the idea of having a fake Archbishop of Canterbury to preside at his coronation; however, once English is caught trespassing at Sauvage's office building, and later tries to unmask the Archbishop, he finds out that Sauvage had scrapped the fake Archbishop plot when Johnny attempts to unmask the fake Archbishop and reveal the impostor's tattoo, only to discover that the Archbishop at Sauvage's coronation ceremony is the genuine one.
* In the 2009 movie ''Film/{{Push}}'', Nick Grant has a grand one. Now, given how seeing the future works in this, knowing what you're doing lets people see your plan. So with a little memory manipulation, he plays out his plan like he intends to get and use the deadly [[AppliedPhlebotinum phlebotinum]]... ''twice'', to cover the fact that his friends already had it.
* ''Film/{{Duplicity}}'' - The whole movie is about a pair of ex-spies hired by industrialist Dick Garsik to infiltrate his archrival Howard Tully's company and steal his mysterious new product. The spies, meanwhile, are plotting to betray Garsik (and perhaps each other) and take the product for themselves. The shuffle: Tully has no product. He knew all about the spies, and set up an elaborate hoax to waste their time and make Garsik look foolish. At the end, Garsik is announcing the miraculous new cure for baldness he just "developed" to the world, while the spies' buyer tells them that their "cure" is a worthless formula for skin lotion...
* The 1959 ''[[Film/HouseOnHauntedHill1959 House on Haunted Hill]]'' is essentially a whole load of characters going around trying to trap and falling into the traps of others. We can particularly point out the trope use in the use of the characters who are playing dead. In Annabelle's case it is a simple misdirection as part of the plot in which she is involved. However when Vincent Price's character reveals himself to have not only been playing dead but also been playing along with his wife's entire plot to just switch out key elements so that it turns back on her, ''that'' takes the biscuit.
* In ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'', Scott tries to defeat Todd Ingram's vegan-based psychic powers by offering him a cup of coffee, putting soy milk in one cup of coffee and half-n-half in the other. Todd correctly assumes Scott is trying to trick him and reads Scott's mind, "discovering" that he put half-n-half in the cup he's offering. However, Scott in fact put half-n-half in the cup he's ''not'' offering to Todd, and "thought real hard" about putting half-n-half in the cup he originally offered. This wouldn't have worked, though, had Todd not already had two strikes against him for eating gelato ("It's milk and eggs, bitch") and chicken ("Chicken's not vegan?"). The half-n-half makes it a third strike.
* ''Film/SupermanII'': Superman, at the Fortress of Solitude, renders Zod, Ursa and Non powerless. He whispers to Luthor a molecule chamber to depower Kryptonians, who warns him not to go inside. Superman goes into a chamber, which actually shields him from the effects of the red solar rays, which unbeknownst to Zod, Ursa, and Non, deprives them of their Kryptonian super powers. As soon as General Zod demands that Superman [[KneelBeforeZod pledge his loyalty to him]], the Man of Steel crushes Zod's now-mortal body, and his partners-in-crime meet their demise soon afterwards. Superman then reveals that he was aware of Luther's trechery, despite Luther's insistance that he was helping him.
* The Mr. Charles con in ''Film/{{Inception}}'', where the mark is made aware that thieves are secretly trying to get into their subconscious in order to con the mark into attempting to stop it, thereby letting the thieves deeper into their subconscious. It is noted to be akin to a DangerousForbiddenTechnique, because if the thief slips for even a moment, the target will realize the trick. And then ''every person in the dream attacks the thief''. Cobb had even tried and failed it once before.
* The entire plot of ''Film/WildThings'' revolves around Suzie convincing the other conspirators into thinking they know what the con is. Kelly thinks she and Sam will get rid of Suzie and run off together with the money. Ray thinks he and Sam will get rid of both girls, implicate Kelly in Suzie's murder, and split the money two-ways before parting. Sam thinks he and Suzie will frame Kelly for Suzie's "murder", kill Ray, and run off together with the money. Turns out the real plan was for Suzie to fake her own death with Sam's assistance, implicate Kelly, kill both Ray and Sam, and take ''all'' the money.
* In ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'', Agent Kujan strongly suspects that Verbal Kint is hiding something and is covering for ex-cop Dean Keaton, who is Kujan's real target. He's right about the first part, but he doesn't realize how badly off he is about the second until after he lets Verbal -- aka Keyser Söze -- walk out of his office.
* In ''Film/HouseOfGames'', the affluent heroine realizes that she's being conned and exposes the conman. Impressed, the conman shows her a little bit of his lifestyle, and she quickly gets wrapped up in his exotic world of shadows. In the end, the whole thing was one bigger con to get even more money out of her.
* ''Film/ReindeerGames'' has a big one. Rudy is posing as his late cellmate Nick (killed in a fight) to be with Nick's girlfriend, Ashley. Ashley's brother, Gabriel, forces "Nick" to help his gang rob the casino Nick used to work at. Rudy goes along with it as he realizes that if they don't need "Nick," Gabriel will kill him and Ashley. Here's where the Shuffle begins...
** During an escape, Nick overhears Gabriel and Ashley talking as it turns out they're not siblings but lovers who are using "Nick" and planning to kill him anyway when this is done. Rudy plays that he's still in the dark and Ashley loves him so he can figure out a way to sabotage the robbery.
** The robbery turns into a mess with only Rudy (having his identity exposed), Gabriel and Ashley getting away. At which point, Ashley shoots Gabriel and a very much alive Nick shows up. Ashley is his real girlfriend who was using Gabriel and his gang to rob the casino and Rudy/fake-Nick suckered to take the fall while the two run off with the money.
* A minor version exists in ''Film/{{Heat}}'' -- Neil [=McCauley=], Chris Shiherlis and Michael Cheritto discuss their possible escape routes from their next heist right in plain sight where the cops can overhear them (despite being a group of professional thieves). Cue Lt. Vincent Hanna and his team heading down to the scene for additional clues, only for Hanna to realize that it was probably misinformation they were fed, and that the entire meeting was to get the detectives in the open, ''allowing Neil to counterspy on them and learn their identities.'' Indeed, we see Neil taking pictures of them from the same vantage point Hanna was using earlier.
* ''Film/EscapePlan'': Breslin's titular plan involves one of these -- he makes [[BigBad Hobbs]] think that he's going to start a riot in Block C, making Hobbs move most of his guards there... at which point, Breslin starts a riot in the now vastly understaffed Block A, creating a diversion so that he, Rottmayer, and Javen can make a run for it.

* In ''Film/WouldYouRather'', one of the characters (Peter) is a gambler who thinks he has outsmarted the rich sadist leading him and others through the titular game: given the choice between having your head held underwater for two minutes or chancing what's in a sealed envelope, he explains why the envelope is the safe bet. In fact, the envelope choice is to have a firecracker explode in your hand. Unfortunately for Peter, the "firecracker" in question is a massive M-80 duct-taped to his hand - most of which he loses in the explosion.
* ''Film/TheSpanishPrisoner'' is all about this. It includes a detailed explanation of the Spanish Prisoner con, which is designed to distract the mark (and the audience) from the fact that this is not actually the con being performed.
* ''Film/MissionImpossibleRogueNation'': Ethan Hunt requires the British Prime Minister's fingerprint, retinal scan, and voice pattern to decrypt a virtual redbox. Brandt sells him out to Hunley, who informs [=MI6=] chairman Attley, who ushers the Prime Minister to safety, because Hunt going after the Prime Minister would cause an international incident. Once safely in a room, Brandt manages to manipulate the Prime Minister and Attley into revealing the existence of [[NebulousEvilOrganization the Syndicate]]. With this knowledge in hand, Hunley and Brandt, knowing Hunt's previous track record of anticipating his opponent's every move (conversation included), decide the best course of action is to stay put. Turns out, ''that'' was the action Ethan planned for, and that Brandt was in on it all along.

* Toddy uses this to set up the titular act in ''Film/VictorVictoria'', disguising Victoria as a man so she can become a drag queen. The cover story is that "he" is Count Victor Krazinski, a Polish aristocrat thrown out by his family for being gay. Once everyone sees through that story, they won't look for any other deception. Later, Toddy eavesdrops on a couple of dancers commenting that the Count is clearly not a count, but ''he'' is still gorgeous.
-->'''Victoria:''' No audience is that gullible! They'll know he's a phony!\\
'''Toddy:''' Exactly. They'll know ''he's'' a phony.

** In "The Room That Cannot Be Trusted", Prince is approached by a couple of suspicious guys who say they can help him beat Jue Viole Grace. They give him a drink that they say can prevent Viole from using his ability to freeze the drinker. Prince suspects the drink has something funny in it and lets Ehwa drink it first. That's just what they wanted; it enables them to take control of her mind, and she's a much more valuable prize than Prince. (And besides, their boss wants to do some EvilGloating to Prince.)

* ''Film/SupermanII'':
** Superman, at the Fortress of Solitude, uses a rare heroic instance to render Zod, Ursa and Non powerless:
--->'''Superman:''' ''[whispering to Luthor]'' Try and get them all into this molecule chamber; it turns them all into ordinary human beings, see, and it takes away their powers. Now if you could--\\
'''Lex Luthor:''' General, don't go in there, it's a trap.\\
'''Superman:''' Luthor, you poisonous snake!\\
'''Lex Luthor:''' That's a molecule chamber. It turns people like you into people like me.\\
'''General Zod:''' You've done well, Lex Luthor.\\
'''Lex Luthor:''' The crystal there activates the mechanism.\\
'''General Zod:''' Lex Luthor, ruler of Australia, activate the machine.
** Superman goes into a chamber, which actually shields him from the effects of the red solar rays, which unbeknownst to Zod, Ursa, and Non, deprives them of their Kryptonian super powers. As soon as General Zod demands that Superman [[KneelBeforeZod pledge his loyalty to him]], the Man of Steel crushes Zod's now-mortal body, and his partners-in-crime meet their demise soon afterwards.
--->'''Lex Luthor:''' ''[astonished]'' He switched it, he did it to them! I mean, the lights were on out here... while he was safe in there!\\
''[Superman nods]''
** Nevertheless, Superman remains unimpressed by Lex Luthor's devious attempts when the Man of Steel calls Luthor's bluff:
--->'''Superman:''' I knew you'd double-cross me, Luthor. A lying weasel like you couldn't resist the chance.\\
'''Lex Luthor:''' Me? Are you kidding? I was with you all the time! That was beautiful! Did you see the way they fell into our trap?\\
'''Superman:''' Too late, Luthor! Too late.

'''Toddy:''' Exactly. They'll know ''he'' a phony.

Compare InfractionDistraction, where a similar ploy is used with offenses, and TwoRightsMakeAWrong and MassiveMultiplayerScam. FeedTheMole may be a tactic done as part of this strategy. May involve ReversePsychology. Typically a BatmanGambit, insofar the plotter relies on the pawn's predicted reaction to a piece of misinformation, but may be part of a XanatosGambit instead if ''all'' reasonable outcomes are beneficial to the con-man, regardless of whether or not the attempt at a Kansas City Shuffle itself succeeds. May be employed by means of a RevealingCoverup. A key element of (most) {{Shell Game}}s.

All con-games rely on misdirection to some degree. In most, the conman wants the victim to believe that it's not a con at all. But in a Kansas City Shuffle, the conman needs the victim to do three things:

## To be wrong about what the con is.

A con can be complicated without being a Kansas City Shuffle, and not all Kansas City Shuffles are complicated. It's also not a Kansas City Shuffle just because the mark goes into the situation aware that ''something'' dishonest is going on: most cons are built around convincing the mark that he has an opportunity to benefit from something a bit under the table. To qualify as a Kansas City Shuffle, the mark has to think they've figured out how the con works and — by attempting to outmaneuver or outsmart it — walk right into the ''real'' trap.

Related (but distinct) cons include ViolinScam (where the grifter tricks the mark into trying to con ''him''). A mark who is TooCleverByHalf is likely to take the bait and be conned, while another who is TooDumbToFool may unwittingly evade the trap.

The Kansas City Shuffle is an old established name for a con game that depends on the mark believing (correctly) that the conman is trying to con him, but being ''in''correct about how it's going to be done. There's a reason it's called a "confidence trick", after all. RightForTheWrongReasons manipulated to benefit the con artist.

* The TropeNamer is ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin'', which uses "Kansas City Shuffle" as a code for a type of con that Mr. Goodkat enacts; "...when everybody looks right, you go left." The antagonistic Boss and Rabbi both assume that Mr. Goodkat and his seeming patsy Slevin / "Nick Fisher" are being manipulated by their enemy to con them. Both proceed to attempt to bring in and manipulate Slevin themselves to exploit their enemy's con to their own advantage, only for the end of the film to reveal [[spoiler:the true con was being run by Slevin himself, who wanted access to both the Boss and the Rabbi to exact revenge for their murder of his parents decades earlier. As soon as they attempted to bring him in to stop the apparent con of their opponent, he'd already won.]]

* ''Film/TheSpanishPrisoner'' is all about this. It includes a detailed explanation of the SpanishPrisoner con, which is designed to distract the mark (and the audience) from the fact that this is not actually the con being performed.

Related (but distinct) cons include the very common TheConWithinACon (where the grifter convinces the mark that they can be partners in conning a third party), and ViolinScam (where the grifter tricks the mark into trying to con ''him''). A mark who is TooCleverByHalf is likely to take the bait and be conned, while another who is TooDumbToFool may unwittingly evade the trap.