History Main / PleaseShootTheMessenger

* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the unfortunate messengers in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. Notably, they actually did know what the letter was before Hamlet changed its contents from "Kill Hamlet" to "Kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern."

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Hitman}} Hitman: Blood Money]]'', the agency has some sort of code that instructs their agents to kill postmen who bring them a letter marked with it.

* In the flash-sideways reality of ''{{Lost}}'', Jin and Sun travel to the United States to deliver a large sum of cash to a business associate of Sun's father. The associate, Keamy, reveals that the money is Keamy's fee for killing Jin.

* One ''BeetleBailey'' strip had Sarge, tired of Beetle's antics, tell Beetle to deliver a letter to General Halftrack. Lt. Fuzz intercepted Beetle, declaring that if anyone was to deliver a message to the general, it should be him. The message? "Throw this idiot in the brig!"

* Mortimer pulls this on hired assassin Lightborn in Marlowe's ''Edward II,'' sending him to kill the deposed King Edward with a note to Edward's jailers to kill Lightborn himself once the deed is done.

* OlderThanFeudalism: [[GreekMythology Iobates]] was the King of Lycia. His son-in-law Proetus, convinced that his guest Bellerophon had tried to rape his wife/Iobates' daughter (in fact, [[WoundedGazelleGambit Bellerophon had refused her advances]]), was determined to kill the hero, but was bound by ''[[SacredHospitality xenia]]'' not to. So he sent Bellerophon to Iobates with a note that said "Kill the bearer of this message." But before Bellerophon could hand the message to Iobates, he had feasted at the Lycian court and slept under the King's roof--''xenia'' again! So [[UriahGambit Bellerophon was sent to destroy the horrible monster Chimera]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckRabbitDuck'', BugsBunny tricks Elmer Fudd into thinking he needed a special license to shoot a "fricasseeing rabbit." Daffy Duck writes up the license but Bugs tricks Daffy into making it a "fricasseeing duck" license.

->Wilt thou know \\

Not [[SayYourPrayers shriving-time]] allow'd.

* A subversion in ''WorldOfWarcraft : Wrath of The Lich King''. You are instructed (by an Ebon Blade officer) to read the message aloud in front of a [[HornyVikings Vrykul]] warlord. The message itself is an order to submit and ceasing allegiance to the Lich King with surrender or die threat attached. At the end of the message, it is said that the messenger will also be the deliverer of said threat should he refused to submit (which he definitely won't).
* ''{{Dishonored}}'' has a variation: That message you're giving to Lord Shaw doesn't call for your death, per se, it just goads him into a duel. You are [[BlueBlood Pendleton]]'s second. Pendleton [[DirtyCoward is not present.]]

* Dr. Bledsoe pulls a non-fatal version on the Narrator in ''Literature/InvisibleMan''.

* This is how John Looney betrays Michael O'Sullivan in ''RoadToPerdition''. The message in question read "Kill O'Sullivan, and all is forgiven." Michael being [[{{Badass}} Michael]], however, the people that he sends this message to don't succeed in offing him. John Looney's son Connor, on the other hand, is a lot more successful in [[MoralEventHorizon his part of the betrayal]].
* One of the ''MouseGuard'' books had a story where this happened to one of the protagonists, as a ruse by the king of his own land in order to get the guy's wife while at the same time ending a war that the two kings had been engaged in. The dude actually lives through the attack and is able to return, and his wife ends up killing the king.

* ''RoadToPerdition'' combines this with a UriahGambit. When Sullivan goes out on his debt collecting rounds for Mr. Rooney, he is given a special note from him [[spoiler: actually from Rooney's son]] for the first debtor he visits - an offer to forgive the debt if the debtor kills Sullivan.
* ''TheTransporter'' makes a living delivering packages no-questions-asked, so after he's done an assignment for them the villains give him a suitcase with a bomb in it to be delivered somewhere else. Fortunately he stops for a soda so the bomb explodes while he's out of the car.

* In ''TheWheelOfTime'' series, Mat carries one of these at one point. Being less than completely honorable, he decides to read it before he delivers it.

* Played with by the infamously cruel EmperorCaligula, who once ordered a wealthy Roman to carry a letter to Ptolemy, king of Mauretania. The letter asked him to "Do neither good nor ill to the man I have sent."

* In ''{{Drakensang}} II'' in order to win the trust of Captain Soorman you must deliver such a letter to one of his men.

* Downplayed in ''Wizard101'': After giving you a menial task for failure, Professor Cyrus Drake sends you with a letter to the headmaster. The headmaster reads it and exclaims that [[HeartwarmingMoment he will not expel you, no matter what Cyrus thinks of you]].

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* On ''{{Lost}}'', Jin and Sun travel to the United States to deliver a large sum of cash to a business associate of Sun's father. The associate, Keamy, reveals that the money is Keamy's fee for killing Jin.

* In StephenColbert's ''Literature/IAmAmericaAndSoCanYou'', he suggests improving the track-and-field Olympic events in various ways, one of which is to give each runner a sealed envelope the winner is supposed to deliver. The envelopes contain a kill order for the winner. Everyone knows this but the runners.

This trope is when a character causes another - usually an UnwittingPawn - to deliver a message containing the single instruction to harm the person delivering the message. While the instructions are usually fatal, that is not a requirement for the trope. This method of disposing of the UnwittingPawn is usually a KickTheDog moment for the person sending the message.

* BugsBunny once tricked Elmer Fudd into thinking he needed a special license to shoot a "fricasseeing rabbit." Daffy Duck writes up the license but Bugs tricks Daffy into making it a "fricasseeing duck" license.

* Caliph Al-Akim is said to have toyed with this by dropping random missives for people to find and deliver, containing [[SecretTestOfCharacter either an order to kill the bearer or an order to give them gold if delivered unopened.]]

* ''TheFourthProtocol'' is about a Soviet plot to detonate a nuclear device on British soil and MakeItLookLikeAnAccident. As such an act violates a secret protocol between the nuclear powers, various people get bumped off because [[YouKnowTooMuch They Know Too Much]]. A female military scientist is sent to assemble the bomb that the KGB agent played by Pierce Bronson will detonate. She delivers a message which Bronson decodes using a one-time pad, then he burns the message claiming that it just confirms her instructions re setting off the bomb. She ends up sleeping with him, and the morning after rolls over in bed and [[WritingIndentationClue sees the imprint on the notepad]]: KILL HER. Bronson immediately shoves a pillow against her chest and fires his gun through it, killing her as she's about to blurt out that the bomb's timer has been set to kill him the moment he activates it.

* In StephenColbert's ''IAmAmerica (And So Can You)'', he suggests improving the track-and-field Olympic events in various ways, one of which is to give each runner a sealed envelope the winner is supposed to deliver. The envelopes contain a kill order for the winner. Everyone knows this but the runners.

* MackBolan pulls a nasty version of this when he kills a Black Ace (an elite ProfessionalKiller, answerable only to TheMafia Commission) dresses the body in his blacksuit and gives it to the idiot son of a Mafia boss to take to New York so as to get the credit for killing him. When the Don finds out, he has a VillainousBreakdown at the thought of what will happen to his son for this cock-up.

Not to be confused with ShootTheMessenger. For a (potentially) somewhat more subtle method of achieving the same end, see UriahGambit.

* One BeetleBailey strip had Sarge, tired of Beetle's antics, tell Beetle to deliver a letter to General Halftrack. Lt. Fuzz intercepted Beetle, declaring that if anyone was to deliver a message to the general, it should be him. The message? "Throw this idiot in the brig!"
* One of the MouseGuard books had a story where this happened to one of the protagonists, as a ruse by the king of his own land in order to get the guy's wife while at the same time ending a war that the two kings had been engaged in. The dude actually lives through the attack and is able to return, and his wife ends up killing the king.

* ''The Fourth Protocol'' is about a Soviet plot to detonate a nuclear device on British soil and MakeItLookLikeAnAccident. As such an act violates a secret protocol between the nuclear powers, various people get bumped off because [[YouKnowTooMuch They Know Too Much]]. A female military scientist is sent to assemble the bomb that the KGB agent played by Pierce Bronson will detonate. She delivers a message which Bronson decodes using a one-time pad, then he burns the message claiming that it just confirms her instructions re setting off the bomb. She ends up sleeping with him, and the morning after rolls over in bed and [[WritingIndentationClue sees the imprint on the notepad]]: KILL HER. Bronson immediately shoves a pillow against her chest and fires his gun through it, killing her as she's about to blurt out that the bomb's timer has been set to kill him the moment he activates it.