History Main / RichInDollarsPoorInSense

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': One episodes involves Jackie having to escort a billionaire through a jungle to find a lost civilization because the man is a big contributor to the museum Jackie works for. When they do manage to find that lost civilization, the billionaire offers money to the chief in hopes he will indulge the secret to eternal youth. This offering just confuses the chief when he is presented with dollar bills as, being from a ''lost civilization'', their people have no contact with the outside world. Therefore money is basically [[WorthlessYellowRocks useless to them]].

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': One episodes involves Jackie having to escort a billionaire through a jungle to find a lost civilization because the man is a big contributor to the museum Jackie works for. When they do manage to find that lost civilization, the billionaire offers money to the chief in hopes he will indulge the secret to eternal youth. This offering just confuses the chief when he is presented with dollar bills as, being from a ''lost civilization'', their people have no contact with the outside world. Therefore money is basically [[UselessYellowRocks useless to them]].

* ''Series/Loot'' has Molly inheriting $87 billion in a divorce from her tech mogul husband. She tries to give it away via charities and while well-meaning, her inability to understand how regular people live has her putting her foot in a mouth and not understanding how she comes off. Case in point is in Season 2, where she talks about how she's "downsized to a little beach cabana," which is an $80 million Malibu mansion with five pools.

* ''WebAnimation/EpithetErased'': Molly's friend Phoenica comes from a tremendously wealthy family, and while academically gifted (going undefeated in a spelling-based challenge during ''Literature/EpithetErasedPrisonOfPlastic'', for example), is utterly devoid of common sense or survival instinct, to the point where she takes a shortcut through a dingy alley on the bad side of town and then takes quite a run-up to realise not even that she ''could'' be mugged, but that she ''is'', ''right at that moment'', being mugged. She also has so little sense of the value of money that she doesn't realise said mugger could be interested in the stuff and treats a thousand-dollar bill as an insignificant, expendable object, and her business cards are both edible and can be made to function as signal cards thanks to some shady upselling by the graphic designer.

* ''Series/InventingAnna'' is based on the true story of Anna Delvey who successfully scammed hundreds of thousands of dollars from socialites by posing as one herself. She series makes it clear that Anna succeded not because she was a criminal mastermind but because every one of her marks was so used to throwing money around, they had no trouble giving her more and not one of them thought to look into her background.
* In one ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' sketch, Creator/JadenSmith is portrayed as this trope where his agent helps him audition for a movie role as a poor, average kid but has no idea how an average kid lives as he doesn't know what a mall is and is confused why the main character has to choose between pursuing his dreams as a basketball player or quitting to save his mother's life and can't choose both, which Jaden accusing his agent of giving him a Science Fiction role.

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'''s School Mode, the otherwise very intelligent Byakuya Togami mentions that while he's heard of them, he's never seen a toy-dispensing machine up close before. He finds the Monokuma-themed machine inside the school store intriguing enough to demand that Naegi show him as much as possible about how they work, which happens to be one of the select few conversations he has where he's not being [[RichBitch condescending and narcissistic, which he usually is.]]

* In ''Webcomic/AgentsOfTheRealm'', Adele is extremely rich but dresses to impress when going on a short walk in the middle of the night and DrivesLikeCrazy.

* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'' has idiotic CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Kornada, who plainly doesn't understand why he was arrested - after all, the plan he commissioned (no, it's not his plan, he's far too dumb to come up with it) ''would'' have lobotomized almost half a billion robots, crippled Jean's terraforming (if not outright dooming everyone), and cheated countless investors to make him the richest man on the planet, sure, but it didn't work, so it's all right, isn't it? He's also completely deluded as to how the legal system works, thinking he can use lemon laws to complain about his trial for the aforementioned snafu and get a refund for the massive fines he got slapped with.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', after Amy's parents [[RichesToRags go broke and lose their home]].

'''Amy:''' ''[clueless smile]'' What's rent?

* Thanks to a classic ''WesternAnimation/MerrieMelodies'' cartoon, we know not even [[PetHeir pet heirs]] are immune to this trope. In "Aristo-Cat", when a rich cat's butler quits, the cat had no idea of how to feed himself. He thought about eating mice but this plan was halted by the fact he had no clue as to what a mouse looked like. One even tricked him into thinking a dog was a mouse.
* Pops from ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow.'' He was raised in a wealthy household but was very sheltered, resulting in him having a child-like fascination with ''everything''. He's an old man who acts like a very young child due to his naïvete. But this is also partially due to him being from another land entirely. It's implied that he was much more mature and lucid when he was younger, but then Mordecai and Rigby accidentally ran his past self over with a golf cart, possibly resulting in his childish personality.

--->'''Daphe's mother:''' Only need a little [money]? Where did I go wrong with her?

** His inability to grasp financial matters is also {{Justfied|Trope}} by his father being an absolute ControlFreak: Gabriel has delibrately prevented his son from being able to access ''any'' money, including his own wages from working as a model. This [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bites Gabriel in the backside]] after he's [[TheUnmasking exposed as Hawkmoth]] and arrested, as Adrien consequently gains access to ''one'' account: the Agreste emergency funds. Which, it's eventually revealed, [[spoiler:were hidden so that the police weren't aware of their existence until Adrien reported that they'd been cleaned out]]. Something which only happened in the first place because Adrien [[spoiler:accessed the account in front of Lila]], having never been warned against [[spoiler:entering passwords where others can see]].

* On ''Series/{{Bizaardvark}}'', Vuugle boss Liam seems perfectly okay with how the staff of his video channel spend money outrageously on crazy stunts and props, puts them up for lavish trips, and will randomly mention spending millions on things like a space shuttle adventure or some company trying to create invisible sheep. It all comes calling in the series finale when Liam breaks it to the gang that all this wild overspending and bad investments has rendered him near-bankrupt and he has to sell off Vuugle to pay his debts.

* London Tipton from ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'', most notably in "Poor Little Rich Girl" in which her father loses all his money and she has to learn how to live like "normal" people.
* On ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', Woody's rich girlfriend doesn't understand why Woody "refuses" to buy her expensive presents. If he doesn't have the money, why doesn't he just stop at an ATM?

* Most of the Bluth family in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', the point where, among the adults (if you could call them that), nobody but [[OnlySaneMan Michael]] and occasionally George understand the concept of work as anything other than an abstraction.
-->'''Lucille:''' You couldn't give Gob a banana? It's one banana! How much could it cost? Ten dollars?\\
'''Michael:''' You've never even been inside a grocery store, have you?
%%* ''Series/AbsolutelyFabulous''.
* Shannon on ''Series/{{Lost}}''. She's painting her toenails and sunning on the beach while the others are trying to figure out how to survive on a deserted island.
* ''Series/ThirtyRock'':
** Tracy Jordan was likely poor in sense even before he got rich, but he's certainly no good with money now. He wears shirts made out of money and shoes made out of gold.
** GE executive and ManOfWealthAndTaste Jack Donaghy often displays this. An example is when his nanny wants to work fewer hours with the same pay, and Jack likens it to a "grocery concierge" revealing that a 5-pound bag of potatoes costs the same as a 10-pound bag of potatoes: $400.
* True to an absurd extent of Summer's family from ''Series/PowerRangersRPM''. They attempt to force their daughter into retirement from her job so that they can marry her off and get their wealth back as a dowry, ''despite her job being keeping the last human city on earth from being destroyed by killer robots''.
* Rajesh Koothrappali in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''. Hailing from a very rich family in India, he was known for spending lavishly on minor details (For example, he paid premium pedicure for his dog and was a regular donor to a Koala zoo and he didn't even know which one), and ''had no idea'' that his father was paying his rent. He wises up after learning this and takes another job at the planetarium ([[ThrowTheDogABone which became very popular]]) and straight away asks his father to cut his allowances (which Howard estimated in '''hundreds of thousands of dollars''' per month).

* Showcased on ''Series/SiliconValley'' with how you can make a mint in the tech world and yet not understand how to use it.
** Gavin is fond of wasting tons of money on everything from a $20 million hologram that can't actually communicate with people to getting rare animals to make a point on board meetings (one of which is an elephant that drops dead). A board member openly asks why Gavin goes to such cost when he can just show a photo of the animal in question and Gavin clearly never considered that idea.
** Gavin can get Hoolie in hot water with statements that show how utterly out of touch he is with the public. The best example is at a conference when he shocks guests by seriously stating that American millionaires are persecuted worse than the Jews in Nazi Germany.
** While a good guy, Nelson is basically a moron so it's no surprise that when he gets a huge buyout from Hoolie, he goes through it fast. He wasted money having the swimming pool of his mansion moved a few feet then had it moved back. It also turns out that he was renting most of the furniture and items in his home so he can't sell them off for his debts. While it's true his money manager stole much of his cash, it's obvious Nelson would have lost it anyway.
** Erlich thinks that by taking over Nelson's account via a partnership, he has an unlimited supply of cash. He thus blows a million dollars on a huge party at Alcatraz before finding out Nelson is broke. Figuring out the money manager was stealing some funds, Erlich heads to the district attorney to bring about charges. The D.A. however, refuses to prosecute as A) no jury is going to be sympathetic to a couple of millionaires being robbed and B) it's quite clear the two would have blown all the cash in any case.
* In one episode of ''Series/NightCourt,'' Dan is forced to go on a date with a mob boss' plain-Jane daughter and ends up connecting with her on a deep emotional level. But her father doesn't want them getting deeply involved, so he threatens to cut her off if she doesn't break up with him. She reluctantly agrees, explaining that she's lived such a sheltered life that she doesn't know how to live without her father's support--she once got mad at him and ran away to her summer home, where she nearly starved to death because she couldn't figure out how to use a can opener.

* In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "Safe" Simon walks into a General Store and can't figure out what a postholer is. Later River's ItHasBeenAnHonor is "Postholer, digging holes for posts."
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' where Maris completely and instantly falls to pieces over the simplest things. Often done with Frasier and Niles also but Maris is practically the avatar of this trope.
-->'''Niles:''' Do you recall what she used to do whenever one of our dogs needed a shampoo?\\
'''Frasier:''' Yes, she'd fill the bathtub with Evian.\\
'''Niles:''' Half the time she'd just get a new dog!
* Hilary Banks from ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''.
* There was a RealityTV show where millionaires went to live with lower-income folks for a week/month/whatever, that seemed to use this as part of the premise.
* ''Series/UndercoverBoss'' features the owner/CEO/president of a large corporation working anonymously (with a cover story given as to why a camera crew is following this person around) at an entry-level job within the corporation. It's fairly common for them to be really bad at it. The premiere episode actually featured the company president's fake identity getting fired by his supervisor for being so inept at his job... of cleaning out Porta-Potties.
* This is echoed in ''Series/TheApprentice''. a schadenfreude-laden delight of this show lies in watching people with big dreams and wholly inflated confidence in their own abilities consistently fouling up at doing the simplest possible things - then blaming everybody but themselves for their own misfortunes. The glee is tempered somewhat when the realisation sets in that whatever they do they are bound to end up as highly placed executives and managers in the sort of companies where lesser mortals do the real work - for a lot less reward. And then you look at your own bosses in a new light...
* Stingy from ''Series/LazyTown'' has trouble functioning in regular life because he wants to own ''everything'' he sees.
* Rachel Green from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' is a mild example of the trope. She was raised in a wealthy family and was set to be married to someone, but she wound up running out on her wedding and crashing at her not-so-rich friend Monica's apartment. For a long time, Rachel had to learn how to do things that were autonomous to everyone else, such as taking out the garbage and serving drinks to people in a cafe. She does get better in the later seasons.
** Rachel later tries to extend the same help to one of her sisters, and it fails spectacularly, although in her case she wasn't just sheltered, [[TheDitz but remarkably stupid]], to the point where she doesn't understand why her attempted baby salon business (which consists mostly of her telling parents that their babies are ugly) is failing.
* Inverted in ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies''. A group of poor country folks become ungodly rich by finding oil on their land, and half of the humor of the show is them applying their extreme practical ideas, from long experiences of being dirt poor, to the luxuries of the rich.
* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation''

-->'''Ben''': I expect them to go bankrupt by the end of... this sentence.

* ''Series/GrandHotel''
** Santiago prides himself on how he worked his way from a dishwasher to the owner of a posh Miami hotel. His wife, Gigi, also had to do some hard work to be successful. While Santiago's daughter, Alicia, follows his path in work, it's obvious that his son, Javi, and Gigi's daughters, Carolina and Yoli, are all spoiled rotten and not understanding what it's like to not live without money.
** This comes up with a staff strike forces all three to take jobs at the hotel. To his credit, Javi is able to grasp being a maintenance man and even takes over when his supervisor goes to the hospital. However, Carolina has no idea how to handle the simple job of restaurant hostess while the usually sensible Yoli is mopping floors in high heels.
* In one ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' sketch, Creator/JadenSmith is portrayed as this trope where his agent helps him audition for a movie role as a poor, average kid but has no idea how an average kid lives as he doesn't know what a mall is and is confused why the main character has to choose between pursuing his dreams as a basketball player or quitting to save his mother's life and can't choose both, which Jaden accusing his agent of giving him a Science Fiction role.
* ''Series/Hawkeye2021'' has Kate Bishop becoming a NonIdleRich, embracing the opportunity to become the heroine she dreamt of being. Unfortunately, she is SkilledButNaive, as no matter if fit for an ActionGirl, she has a knack for getting into trouble for doing very stupid things without thinking them through first, not to mention clumsy and displaying how she has no experience in combat outside of a gym.
* ''Series/InventingAnna'' is based on the true story of Anna Delvey who successfully scammed hundreds of thousands of dollars from socialites by posing as one herself. She series makes it clear that Anna succeded not because she was a criminal mastermind but because every one of her marks was so used to throwing money around, they had no trouble giving her more and not one of them thought to look into her background.
* In the season 2 finale of ''Series/PartyDown,'' Constance inherits a fortune when her rich husband dies. In the Season 3 revival a decade later, it's shown Constance is still rich, which is amazing considering how she barely understands money. It's summed up when Ron asks for "ten grand" and is stunned by the check.
-->'''Ron''': This is for ten ''million'' dollars.
-->'''Constance''': Yeah, you said ten grand.
-->'''Ron''': A grand is a thousand, not a million.
-->'''Constance''': ...Huh. That explains a lot...

* Mentioned in the NikKershaw song "Wide Boy":
-->''He got no sense but he got money\\
He got no sense but he got overnight success\\
Exceed excess, exceed excess''

* Luke Fon Fabre of ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' starts out like this, as an effect of his LaserGuidedAmnesia and the fact that ever since he lost his memory, he hasn't been allowed outside his parents' manor. As a result, he doesn't even know how to buy things at a shop.
* PlayedForLaughs with Dohalim il Qaras in ''VideoGame/TalesOfArise''. Being from a noble upbringing, he doesn't quite understand the value of gald in Dahna. Often showing off expensive trinkets bought with the party's cash reserves. Thankfully, it does not actually effect your gald total.

* ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'': The Panther King is very rich and powerful, but is so stupid that he has to have a ''scientist'' specifically tell him that his throne-side table is quite clearly missing a leg, which is why he keeps spilling his milk.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'': [[spoiler:When Bruce Wayne unmasks himself as Batman at the end, a few members of the crowd can be heard whispering in disgust at the billions in trust-fund money that he (in their philosophy) threw to the wind on [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys those wonderful toys]].]]
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', Alphinaud Leveilleur is from one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Sharlayan. While he does have Sharlayan's famed centers of knowledge for his education, when it comes to costs, what funds are available to him, and their source, he has an occasional habit of shrugging it off without a second thought. This ends up getting him in trouble twice, once for drama and later on for laughs.
** The drama comes in the finale of ''A Realm Reborn'', from his lack of attention to [[spoiler:the source of the Crystal Braves' funding, allowing for the Monetarists of Ul'Dah to gain vast amounts of influence with the Crystal Braves' second-in-command Ilberd and his loyalists, leading to them betraying the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and nearly destroying the order]].
** Later in ''Stormblood'', this gets played for laughs in the latest RunningGag of "Alphinaud gets served a slice of humble pie", when he absolutely pisses off Tataru by [[spoiler:choosing to repurchase Gosetsu's katana, which the old samurai had pawned off for his own funds, while thinking it should be no problem for the Scions' coffers to cover the costs as a favor for one of their friends without even bartering a single gil down. It turns out, much to Alphinaud's horror, that a katana of a high-ranking samurai can be worth as much as a brand new and fully furnished home, and the Scions are ''not'' as well off as the Leveilleur family.]]

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1313687263055115000
%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to suggest an image.

'''Rapper:''' ''[chuckling dismissively as if the very idea is ridiculous]'' Naw, man.\\

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27401197/chapters/66970015 HBBIC (Head Bitches & Bastard In Charge)]]'', when searching for evidence of Damocles being corrupt, the Primaries discover that he's been spending tens of thousands of dollars of the school's money on rare Knight Owl comics. Rich kids Adrien and Chloé initially don't see what the big deal is, since they're used to spending that amount of money on a regular basis; it takes Marinette telling them to imagine the comics being worth millions instead for the full impact of Damocles' actions to sink in.
* PlayedForDrama in ''Fanfic/TheKarmaOfLies'': Because his family is so wealthy, [[WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug Adrien Agreste]] has no real concept of the ''value'' of money, or what it's like for his peers who ''can't'' afford to buy whatever they want on a whim. As a result, he doesn't see anything wrong with letting [[ManipulativeBitch Lila]] con his classmates. Despite Plagg repeatedly trying to warn him that his friends don't have the same amount of disposable income, Adrien repeatedly blows him off, insisting everything will work out [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality because he wants it to]].

* ''Fanfic/AMothersTouch''" Yoko Sakaki points this about Reiji Akaba's plan to take Yuya's Pendulum cards for himself is this. He's supposedly a teen CEO in the vein of Seto Kaiba, master of three Extra Deck Summonings. But instead of ''asking'' to see the cards for himself, or even paying some royalties for Yuya, Reiji instead decides to either 1) have some other student steal the cards and let four children nearly die from an Action Duel or 2) agree to false accusations of her son attacking Sylvio (when it was Yuto) and force Shuzo to sell You Show in exchange...without realizing or reading the fine print that Shuzo is only the ''principal'' of You Show, not co-owner like Yoko is.

* Princess Jasmine in Disney's ''{{WesternAnimation/Aladdin}}'' never had to deal with money, so she nearly got in horrible trouble when she left the palace and forgot to bring any.

* Mr. Toad in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'' sure counts as he wastes his fortune on his wild "manias." In fact, he gets arrested because no one believes his claims he would actually trade his hundred-thousand-pound worth manor for a ''motorcar''. It's even debatable on the "rich" part, given how much damage he has to pay for from his antics.

* In ''Film/TroopBeverlyHills'', the main character is leading a troop of [[CaptainErsatz ersatz]] [[ScoutOut Girl Scouts]] and at first treats it like lounging by the pool, [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/troop_leader_lounging_around.jpg including spending their first trip]] [[LotsOfLuggage "roughing it" wearing a]] [[PrettyInMink mink coat]], [[SmokingIsGlamorous smoking a cigarette]], and drinking chilled wine. And later, the troop spends a night in Beverly Hills Hotel, because the campsite is unsuitable for them, as the main character puts it, "there were no outlets, and, there was dirt and bugs, and it rains there."

* ''Film/{{Arthur 1981}}'': The title character, son of a wealthy family, has spent his life getting drunk and goofing off. When his mother threatens to cut him off, he knows that he'll be completely unable to function in normal society.
* Used in ''Film/{{The Parent Trap|1998}}'': the twins and their millionaire rancher dad are used to camping, but his GoldDigger girlfriend isn't.
* In ''Film/MarryMe2022'', pop superstar Kat Valdez demonstrates a comparatively minor example of this when trying to get to her estranged husband Charlie and his daughter Lou after ending her interview on ''The Tonight Show''; she only realises that she forgot to bring her passport once she's at the airport, tries to buy another passenger's ticket without knowing that's illegal, attempts to get champagne for the other passengers flying coach, doesn't know where to find "cars" (taxis) at the destination airport, and even ended up buying someone's coat because she ran out of the aforementioned interview in a fancy but impractical dress.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/{{Overboard|1987}}'' -- Joanna, the RichBitch, finds herself a PrincessInRags.
* PlayedWith in ''Film/ComingToAmerica''. Akeem (Creator/EddieMurphy) [[KingIncognito deliberately lives below his status as a Prince, cheerfully living as a blue-collar janitor at a local burger joint]] in order to woo [[LoveInterest Lisa]] into loving him for who he is. While he is a bit naïve (it's stated he has never left his homeland before and was quite sheltered growing up), he is likable, has a good head on his shoulders, and acclimatizes well quite quickly. It is actually his ''servant'', Semmi (Arsenio Hall), who bitterly and reluctantly has to go along with all of this and complains about this manner of menial work and lifestyle being beneath him.

* Grace in ''Film/{{Dogville}}''. Oooooh boy. And stubborn to boot.

* This is done to a disturbing degree in ''Film/TheCookTheThiefHisWifeAndHerLover''. Albert Spicca is rich enough to own a high-class restaurant but is uneducated, rude, ignorant, and racist.
* Prince Edvard from ''Film/ThePrinceAndMe'' goes to an American college where no one recognizes him and he pretends to be a normal student. He actually keeps everyone from realizing who he is (until the tabloids find him) but his disguise is somewhat hurt by the butler who works for him in his dorm room.
* Prince Pondicherry from ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. He commissions a palace made ''entirely'' out of [[TrademarkFavoriteFood chocolate]] from Willy Wonka (paying ''generously'' for it)...in his homeland of ''India''. When the palace melts (nearly killing himself and his wife in a deluge of chocolate), his response is to ''immediately'' call up Mr. Wonka and attempt to commission a new one.
* ''Film/LoveAndFriendship'': Sir James Martin is the ideal candidate for a husband, as he is rich, cheerful, and ''incredibly'' stupid. When he arrives at the Churchill family's manor, he admits to being confused by the fact that there's no church on a hill. At dinner, he's entertained by the concept of green peas. Later, he states that there are 12 commandments, and when corrected that there are actually only 10, he wonders which two should be left off.[[note]]FridgeBrilliance, as [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight there are actually more than ten positive commands in the "Ten Commandments" and different religious traditions condense them into ten bullet points in different ways in order to reach the required number.]][[/note]]

* Creator/ScottWesterfeld's ''Literature/{{Leviathan}}'' has Alek, a sheltered rich sort-of-prince, who, when disguised as a commoner, doesn't even know how to pay for a newspaper.
* Mary in ''Literature/TheSecretGarden''. She doesn't even know how to dress herself because "it was the custom" that she stood there like a doll and was dressed. Her gaining knowledge is rather helped by the maid not being a proper lady's maid who knows it's her job to brush hair and the like, so Mary has to do things an upper-class lady would not normally have to do even in England.
* While his precise age isn't given, it's implied that Kal Zakath of David Edding's ''Literature/{{Malloreon}}'' managed to reach his late thirties to forties without ever having learned how to shave. Belgarath points out how surprising it is that the emperor of a culture that breeds ambitious backstabbers regularly let someone other than himself hold a razor to his throat. Belgarion, on the other hand, takes it as an opportunity to establish a peership between himself and Zakath.
* Michael Sevenson is the son of a wealthy baron in the ''Literature/KnightAndRogueSeries'', and even though he's been traveling and earning his own money for a year by the start of the books seems to have no ability to estimate the value on anything. Fisk often has to stop him from paying with the largest gold currency what's only worth the smallest brass coin.
* A theme of ''The Millennium'' by Creator/UptonSinclair.
* Wooster of ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'' literally [[LivingEmotionalCrutch can't function without]] [[TheJeeves his valet]].
--> As I stood in my lonely bedroom at the hotel, trying to tie my white tie myself, it struck me for the first time that there must be whole squads of chappies in the world who had to get along without a man to look after them. I'd always thought of Jeeves as a kind of natural phenomenon; but, by Jove! of course, when you come to think of it, there must be quite a lot of fellows who have to press their own clothes themselves and haven't got anybody to bring them tea in the morning, and so on. It was rather a solemn thought, don't you know. I mean to say, ever since then I've been able to appreciate the frightful privations the poor have to stick.
* When [[spoiler:Morgase Trakand]] goes [[KingIncognito undercover]] in ''Literature/TheHighQueen'' to escape being made a puppet, she turns out to be comically bad at pretending to be a maid (and humility in general), making her disguise flimsy at best.
* British statesman Lord Chesterfield wrote about them in ''Literature/LettersToHisSon'': "He cannot withstand the charms of a toyshop; snuff-boxes, watches, heads of canes, etc., are his destruction. His servants and tradesmen conspire with his own indolence to cheat him; and, in a very little time, he is astonished, in the midst of all the ridiculous superfluities, to find himself in want of all the real comforts and necessaries of life." (letter 62)
* {{Creator/Confucius}} related an example of this in one of his parables. A SelfMadeMan's second son is put in prison, and he wants to send his third son to pay the bail; however, his first son insists on going. The first son bribes an influential man, who convinces the Emperor to open the jails... and then the son, not realizing the connection between the two events, thinks it's a coincidence and asks for the money back. The man returns the money but then tells the Emperor to kill the second son before opening the jails so people don't think he's soft on crime. When he finds out, the father laughs because he anticipated this would happen; he wanted to send the third son (who grew up rich) because he didn't know the value of the money, while the first son (who grew up poor) would pinch every penny and get his brother killed.
* [[EnsignNewbie Lieutenant Blouse]] from ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'' has strong elements of this, but turns out to be a subversion; he's inexperienced, a bit naive, and comes from a rather sheltered upbringing but he's not by any means stupid, even if he's not really cut out for field operations.
* In ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'', this is a regular occurrence with young Herald Trainees from privileged backgrounds. One infamous example involves a boy being set to stuff a chicken for dinner and confusedly replying that it already is stuffed-- with its ''guts''; he becomes the target of ribbing for weeks (to the point it gets mentioned to a new trainee a few years after the incident). All such incidents are played for a combination of laughs and sympathy because he still [[IncorruptiblePurePureness qualifies to be Chosen]].

* In ''Literature/TheSubtleKnife'', the second book of ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', Lyra is shown unable to wash her own hair, as there were always servants around to do it. Somewhat incongruous, as in the first book she spent a long time with the Gyptians, a lower-class travelling people.
* ''Literature/TrappedInADatingSimTheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs'': Marie discovers the hard way that the five capture targets of the Otome game are this after they lose their duel against Leon. All five are stripped of their nobility titles along with all the privileges they took for granted during their whole lives, and they constantly waste the little money they, or rather Marie makes, in presents that are next to useless and meaningless, much to her irritation.

Basically, when wealthy people have trouble grasping concepts that are a way of life for people without money. These people have been [[SpoiledBrat spoiled and sheltered all their lives]], and have had all these things taken care of for them, so when they try to do these things (by choice or not), they just don't understand how to do it.