History Main / MacGuffinDeliveryService

** Judges Guild adventure ''The Illhiedrin Book''. Two opponents (the fighter Khaystar Saru and the thief Drallto Feinfingers) are each working for a wizard who wants the title book. They each plan to let the PlayerCharacter party find the book for him and then steal it from them.

** Judges Guild adventure ''The Illhiedrin Book''. The ChaoticEvil fighter Khaystar Saru is working for a magic user who wants the title book. He plans to shadow the PlayerCharacter party, let them find the book for him and then steal it from them.

* Creator/TadWilliams' trilogy ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'' turns out to be a giant KansasCityShuffle: the [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic dreams]] many of the protagonists have are [[PropheticFallacy actually sent by the villain]], in order to get them to [[MacGuffinDeliveryService bring the three titular swords together]].

->''"We don't want anyone to just like sort of all of a sudden turn up and be like 'Ho ho ho, travelers, thanks for getting the Staff of Magnus for me I'll be taking that'. And then we have to like chase him to the end of the Earth and like get the staff back. We just wanna- oh shit!"'' (Estormo shows up and tries to do just that)

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode "Mantine Overboard". Team Rocket letting Ash and his friends do the hard work of finding a treasure chest in a sunken ship, then stepping in and taking it away from them.

* Pulled off in the last game of ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'', "Milky Way Wishes." The sun and moon begin to fight, throwing Popstar's day-night cycles out of balance. Marx, an adorable jester, tells Kirby that in order to make peace between the sun and the moon, he must ask the wish-granting comet Nova, who can only be summoned once he collects the power from all the neighboring planets. [[spoiler:This was all Marx's plan. He was the one who tricked the sun and moon into fighting, knowing that Kirby would try to solve the problem by doing all the dirty work for him and summoning Nova. Once Kirby does summon Nova, Marx knocks him aside before he can make a wish, then wishes to control Popstar.]]

** This is pulled off even earlier in ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'', where Kirby is happily collecting the pieces of the Star Rod which King [=DeDeDe=] has broken apart. [[spoiler: Nightmare, the BigBad, had been attempting to take over the Dream Land by spreading his nightmares on the Fountain of Dreams, and breaking up the Star Rod was the only way to seal its power. Whoops. Subverted in that Kirby then uses the Star Rod to destroy Nightmare.]]

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' and its PAL key again. The bad guys were counting on you obtaining the keycard, but in the course of the game you defy the odds to get it back, find out how it works, and use it to activate the nuclear weapon.

* A variation in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}''. [[BigBad Jafar]] specifically recruits Aladdin to retrieve the lamp from the Cave of Wonders, promising all its other treasures in return. But after he snatches the lamp, he double-crosses Aladdin, tries to kill him, and then shoves him back into the collapsing cave. Later, it is shown that during the chaos, Aladdin's monkey stole the lamp back from Jafar before they were shoved in, and Aladdin manages to summon the Genie from it. The use of this trope is one of the things taken from the Persian folktale the cartoon is based on.

** And then in ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamland'', [[spoiler: Magolor pulls nearly the ''exact'' same scheme.]] Fool me once...

* In ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}} 2: Lunatea's Veil,'' Klonoa has retrieved three [[CosmicKeystone Elements]] and hands them over to wise man Baguji. As it turns out, the villain, Leorina, was dressed as Baguji and can now proceed to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
** Might just have happened twice, considering that [[spoiler: It kinda seems like the King of Sorrow was the one behind everything in the first place.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'' episode "Sneakers", Ant-Man and Black Panther are racing through a Wakandan DeathCourse to stop Baron Zemo getting hold of a powerful relic. As they reach the final chamber, Ant-Man wonders how Zemo could have got past all the obstacles so easily. Zemo then steps out of the shadows behind them, and says he didn't, they did it for him.

* In ''{{Transformers}}: Kiss Players'', the Sparkbots call upon Marissa Faireborn, Shaoshao Li, and Atari Hitotonari to travel the multiverse and [[GottaCatchThemAll gather fragments of the Allspark]]. When they succeed, [[spoiler:the Sparkbots reveal that the fragments were actually Angolmois, Unicron's lifeforce. They thank the girls for [[UnwittingPawn doing their dirty work for them]] and revive Unicron. Fortunately, [[{{God}} Primus]] appears and defeats the Dark God]].

* In the ''Legacy'' story arc in the Franchise/{{Batman}} comics, Ra's al Ghul used Comicbook/{{Catwoman}} this way to get to an ancient wheel that was a recipe for plagues.

* In ''FanFic/QueenOfAllOni'', the only method Jade has for tracking the masks on her own is astral projection, which she doesn't trust because she can't control it. So, she has [[SinisterSurveillance bugs planted in Uncle's shop]], so that whenever Jackie and the others discover the location of a mask, she can simply follow them there. This is also what led her to the first tablet of [[TomeOfEldritchLore the Teachings of Eternal Shadow]], which set off the story's secondary PlotCoupon hunt.
* ''FanFic/ShadowsAwakening'': Daolon Wong considers letting the heroes gather all the [[ArtifactOfDoom Dark Treasures]] and then stealing them all together from Section 13. [[spoiler: Ultimately, it's his partner [[OurGhostsAreDifferent The Phantom]] who does this.]]
* ''FanFic/TheTearsOfGaia'': When [[BigBad Maugoth]] learns of the Tears, he decides to let the Mane Six do all the hard work of finding them, so that he and his fellow Blightlings don't have to worry about any of the potential threats protecting them.

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Quill retrieves the Orb of Power at the start, then carries it around for half the movie, only to have it taken away from him by Ronan, the very villain that the heroes were trying to prevent from obtaining it. This happens as a result of [[spoiler:Drax, one of the heroes who has a vendetta against Ronan, drunk-dialling Ronan to finally meet him in battle (he loses)]].

* In ''Videogame/DarkParables: The Red Riding Hood Sisters'', the Wolf Queen needs Moon Essence, which is sealed inside the shrine of the [[FantasyPantheon Moon Goddess]]. Only the Elder Sister, who leads the Red Riding Hood Sisters, can access this; however, in light of current circumstances, the detective is permitted to do so instead. So the Wolf Queen just waits while the detective does all the work, then takes the element.

** ''Videogame/FinalFantasyIV'':

** In ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXII'' the empire improvises one of these. It turns out that [[spoiler: Vossler]], who joins your party on the way to the Tomb of Raithwall, was actually a traitor who told the empire about your plans to recover the Dawn Shard. So when you exit the Tomb you are met with a fleet of airships and Judge Ghis, forcing you to hand over the Dawn Shard that you just spent the last three hours of gameplay fighting to get.

* In ''Videogame/SecretOfMana'', the heroes are asked to retrieve [[spoiler:the stolen Water Seed. They go to the underground tunnel, fight a boss, get hold of the Seed and bring it back to the Water Palace. Too bad Geshtar is there waiting for them, and the Seed gets stolen again.]]

* Hero-tricking-villain example in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 6'': in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTwbxqiOxEo Raven's ending]], he waits for Dragunov to capture the body of [[TrueFinalBoss Azazel]] before flying in and grabbing the dark-energy McGuffin from Azazel's body. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvnvBk2t5Dk Dragunov's own ending]] has the exact same thing, except that [[SomebodySetUpUsTheBomb the orb is a bomb]].

* An interesting version of this trope occurs in the 2007 ''VideoGame/GhostRider'' game. The player travels to various locales to hunt down Blackheart's demons who threaten to open the gateway to Hell on Earth, only to find that the gate opens ''anyway'', as the path the Rider took drew an evil symbol on the Earth in the flames left behind by the Rider's bike.

* Happens in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', with the titular Fire Emblem being the [=MacGuffin=] in question. [[spoiler:Subverted in that the MacGuffin was sabotaged in secret, with some of the gems that gave the Emblem its power being switched out for forgeries before it was brought into danger; the one who unwillingly performed the "delivery" had an idea of the risk involved in keeping the Emblem, even if not the complete picture. This sabotage is not revealed to the player until Validar attempts to use the Emblem for his evil purpose. Additionally, the MacGuffin is taken back by the heroes after defeating Validar.]]

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' has a rare justified example, as the player brings the Wraithguard, a magical gauntlet required to handle the tools of Kagrenac, to [[BigBad Dagoth Ur's]] lair in order to sever his (and the Tribunal's) ties to the [[CosmicKeystone Heart of Lorkhan]], which is housed there. If the player were to be slain, Dagoth Ur would then have all the tools necessary to tap into the Heart once again. Justified, since the tools are needed to unbind the Heart and actually kill the PhysicalGod Dagoth Ur.

* ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'': How the aliens view the attack with your best psionic soldier on their Temple Ship. But since they still shoot on sight and never bother with any plan to get that soldier to join them, you will probably make them regret it. Alternatively: The Aliens wanted your best to be on that ship. Why? Its a test. Everything has been a test. This is the last to see if humanity has what it takes. To do what is left ambiguous.

* Inverted in the {{webcomic}} ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'', where the heroes were tasked with collecting the elemental artifacts. Their enemy, Rio the thief, was ordered to steal one of the elemental artifacts so that they couldn't, but in typical Rio incompetence, he stole the one artifact that had previously been successfully kept away from them. Shortly after, he confronted Drecker, who proceeded to steal it from him, resulting in the heroes' success.

* ''VideoGame/XComEnemyUnknown'': How the aliens view the attack with your best psionic soldier on their Temple Ship. But since they still shoot on sight and never bother with any plan to get that soldier to join them, you will probably make them regret it. Alternatively: The Aliens wanted your best to be on that ship. Why? Its a test. Everything has been a test. This is the last to see if humanity has what it takes. To do what is left ambiguous.

** ''[[VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd A Thief's End]]'' is notable because ''[[InvertedTrope Nate's]]'' pulling this -- '''repeatedly.''' Though he himself found the first piece of the LinkedListClueMethodology years before, it was a dead end; long broken, the next clue missing. However, as the originator of the clues intended many to follow the list, there were multiple clues; Nate's rival locates one at an auction and tries to purchase it legitimately, Nate steals it right out from under him. And despite the rival having spent years and millions of dollars investigating the general location of the next clue, Nate is not only able to find it, he's able to get ''ahead'' of his rival -- grab the clue without any of his foes noticing, then set off the CollapsingLair and leave them with ''nothing.'' His rival is stuck blindly searching ''an entire city'' in vain while Nate quietly searches out the next clue, driving the rival to attempt HostageForMacGuffin -- key word being ''attempt.'' At this point the rival basically says "fuck subtlety" and just swarms Nate's general location with mercenaries. By the time he catches up with Nate, he doesn't even ''care'' about the treasure anymore, he just wants him dead out of sheer frustration. His {{Dragon}} just grabs some treasure that's laying around and says ScrewThisImOuttaHere.

** In the original ''VideoGame/TombRaider'', Lara inadvertently helps Natla reclaim her original Scion piece, and also the other two.
** Same in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'', ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'', ''VideoGame/TombRaiderTheLastRevelation''-- Okay, this happens a lot. Pretty much the basic plot of every game is Lara beating the villain to the treasure of the game, then ''somehow'' losing it to the baddie anyway and having to tackle a supernatural final boss.

*** At Giruvegan you discover that [[spoiler: the lost race who live there have been secretly manipulating one of your party members all along, and they give her the Treaty Blade so they can travel to Ridorina -- which is where Cid is waiting for them to deliver the blade - because they want her to defeat him and use the blade to create an even more powerful McGuffin which will put the human race back in its place]]. So yeah, definitely one of the "90%" versions of this trope.

** In Issue #7, players team up with a mysterious Russian agent representing the Council of Venice in an attempt to track down [[McGuffinSuperPerson Emma Smith]], the resident [[LittleMissAlmighty all-powerful little girl]]. After a long and frustrating journey through monster-infested forests, abandoned Soviet bunkers, the snowy Carpathian Mountains, and into the bowels of the Nursery itself, you ''finally'' find Emma unconscious but alive... only for the Russian to stab you in the back with a syringe. Turns out she's the BigBad and you just led her to the one thing she needed for her EvilPlan.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

** ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'': Risky invokes this as part of her BatmanGambit, [[spoiler:ordering Shantae to collect all 20 Dark Magic before she confronts the Pirate Master, expecting the (former) half-genie to end up handing it over to the him after they had secretly reverted back to Light Magic, giving her a surprise EleventhHourSuperpower to beat the Pirate Master with]].

* ''OnceUponATimeInWonderland'': In order to complete his spell to rewrite the laws of magic, Jafar discovers that he needs to restore the Knave of Hearts' [[spoiler: missing heart]]. After Alice and Cyrus travel to [[Series/OnceUponATime Storybrooke]] to retrieve it to stop him getting it he simply takes it from them. [[spoiler: However, in the battle they are able to take his staff, which is ''another'' necessary component of the spell.]]

* In ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', the four knock themselves out collecting the three pieces of the Vasyn, one by one. Returning triumphantly with the (much smaller) third piece, they are horrified to discover the other two (huge) pieces missing! (Paul: Who would want them? Who ''could'' steal them? John: ''We'' could!) Subverted in that the four had no idea anyone else would want the Vasyn, and the thieves didn't even know the four were fetching it until they returned to Ta'akan and found the first two pieces sitting there.

*** The page quote is from a {{Subversion}} that happens during the [[WizardingSchool College of Winterhold]] questline. Estormo, a Thalmor agent who is helping the questline’s main villain, ambushes you right after navigating the Labyrinthian ruin and obtaining the Staff of Magnus. In what might otherwise be a scripted cutscene, the game allows you to [[TalkToTheFist attack him at any time]], even during his introductory speech. And the best part is that the very staff he's trying to take from you is [[HoistByHisOwnPetard almost tailor-made to bring him down]]: it inflicts ManaDrain, and he's a [[SquishyWizard squishy]] [[WitchSpecies Altmer]] mage who both relies on and is vulnerable to magic. [[CurbstompBattle You can guess the result.]]