History Main / WhatYouAreInTheDark

** ''Literature/BookOfColossians'' instructs slaves and employees to do the work they're meant to do at all times, not only when their earthly masters' eye's are on you.

!!Examples:

* The entire point of Creator/{{Plato}}'s [[Literature/TheRepublic story about the Ring of Gyges]] is that ''no one'' can pass this test. If equipped with a magical ring that gives invisibility (and thus freedom from consequence), Plato believed that anyone would act purely in his own self-interest.

[[Administrivia/DoWeHaveThisOne Compare and contrast]] the ''villainous'' version; the villain has [[TheBadGuyWins achieved everything they set out to do]], has wealth and power beyond their imagination, and is perhaps even ready to [[UnholyMatrimony settle down]] with someone they [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes genuinely and unselfishly love]]. Then they realize that their actions [[EveryoneHasStandards cross a line]] — believing utterly that what they have done is unforgivable and a HeelFaceTurn probably won't even ''work'' — and they give it all up to fight for Good '''anyway.''' Also see UndercoverWhenAlone.

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[[caption-width-right:300:Sometimes, you surprise yourself.]]

* One scene in Eugene Ionesco's "The Killing Game" involves a split scene depicting two people, Jeanne and Pierre, enjoying an afternoon with their respective romantic partners when they're suddenly stricken by a [[InstantIllness terrifying and lethal disease]]. As the disease progresses, it robs the victims of their senses to the point where they can no longer perceive whether their partner is even there or not. Pierre's partner takes advantage of this to abandon him in hopes of reducing her own chances of catching the disease... but Jeanne's partner chooses to stay by her side and hold her in her dying moments, even though he knows she can't tell the difference.

** In Episode 5, Kirito and Asuna (before they become a couple) fall asleep next to each other. Kirito wakes up before Asuna and realizes that with no one around, he can do whatever he wants to her. [[FaceDoodling He draws cat whiskers on her face]]. In fact, when questioned, he reveals that he never even thought of anything else that he could possible do to someone who's sleeping.

* Not sure if philosophy fits under Literature, Myths or Real Life, but Seneca almost quotes the trope name in his "On Benefits":
--> ''Sometimes even the person who is assisted must be deceived, in order that he may receive our bounty without knowing the source from whence it flows. [...] "What," say you, "ought he not to know from whom he received it?" Yes; let him not know it at first, if it be essential to your kindness that he should not; afterwards I will do so much for him, and give him so much that he will perceive who was the giver of the former benefit; or, better still, let him not know that he has received anything, provided I know that I have given it. "This," you say, "is to get too little return for one's goodness." True, if it be an investment of which you are thinking; but if a gift, it should be given in the way which will be of most service to the receiver. You should be satisfied with the approval of your own conscience; if not, you do not really delight in doing good, but in being seen to do good. "For all that," say you, "I wish him to know it." [...] So, then, you would not save a man's life in the dark?''

* In the final episode of ''[[Machinima/FreemansMind Shephard's Mind]]'', Shephard admits to himself that he'll most likely never escape Black Mesa, and nobody would ever know what he did, much less be aware he even existed. But despite that, he's going to take as many aliens down with him as possible.

* During a race at the 1988 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames in Seoul, Canadian sailor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lemieux Lawrence Lemieux]] was in second place and all but guaranteed to advance to the medal round. But he noticed that the Singapore team had capsized, were injured, and in serious danger of drowning. Deciding that winning a medal was ''not'' worth letting people die when he could do something, Lemieux turned back to save the Singapore team, which cost Lemieux the race. However, things worked out--the International Yacht Racing Union unanimously voted to officially award Lemieux with second place anyways. In the end, Lemieux didn't get a medal for a top-three place in the medal round... but he ''was'' [[SweetAndSourGrapes awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal]], the supreme and rarest of all Olympic medals, for exemplifying the spirit of the Olympic Games at its finest.