Master of the house, keeper of the zoo
Ready to relieve 'em of a sou or two
Watering the wine, making up the weight
Pickin' up their knick-knacks when they can't see straight
Everybody loves a landlord
Everybody's bosom friend
I do whatever pleases
Jesus! Won't I bleed 'em in the end!
— Thénardier, Les Misérables, "Master of the House"
The stereotypical sleazy innkeeper or tavern owner, all ready to prey on weary and unsuspecting travelers. He'll put on a kindly face as he welcomes you in from the pouring rain, cooks you up a hot meal, pulls out a comfy chair for you next to the fire, and pours you a glass of wine, encouraging you to drink and be merry. The warmth, the food, and the alcohol are making you really sleepy...hey, is he going through your bags?
This trope is a fairly old-fashioned one that preys on people's fears of being robbed by strangers when they're far away from home and was more common in the days when inns could be the only place to stay for miles around. Nowadays, a hotel manager or employee who tries this will probably get sued into oblivion and/or fired by the company, and even a small, individually owned hotel or motel is likely to get pummeled by angry online reviews if too many customers find their valuables missing when they get home.
A common way for karma to bite the Pilfering Proprietor is for him to attempt to rob a guest who looks harmless, only to find out too late that he's just mugged the monster.
A specific type of Bad Samaritan and Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, and related to Hell Hotel and Inn Security. For another hotel you wouldn't want to stay at, see Inn of No Return, where the proprietor actually kills his customers instead of simply robbing them (though he can do both). When the guest steals from the hotel instead of the other way around, see Stealing from the Hotel.
Indices: Hotel Tropes, Alliterative Name, Villains, Crime and Punishment Tropes
Examples:
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Comic Books
- The Sandman (1989): "The Hunt", a general pastiche of East-European fairytales, naturally has the hero Vassily outwitting and eating one such fellow on his travels.
Folklore
- A fairytale classified as ATU 563 in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index involves an innkeeper stealing two magical items from his guest and replacing them with non-magical ones, until the guest gets wise to it and tricks him, using the final item (in different versions it's a stick, a sack containing two club-wielding giants, etc.) to get the innkeeper beaten up badly until the latter returns the stolen things.
- In the Japanese folktale The Magical Herb, a merchant stays at an inn overnight. The innkeeper's greedy wife convinces her husband to try and steal his goods by putting a magical herb called mega in his food, which will make him forgetful. She thinks this will make him forget to take his goods, but after he leaves the inn, they realize he forgot to pay for his stay.
Literature
- The Adventures of Pinocchio: The innkeeper at the Red Prawn Inn conspires with the Fox and Cat in their plan to rob Pinocchio of his gold pieces.
- The Count of Monte Cristo: Caderousse is not specifically noted as corrupt once he becomes an innkeeper, although prior to that, he had a minor role in Dantes' unjust imprisonment and afterward acts as a Loan Shark towards Dantes' impoverished father. However, he nonetheless fulfills the part about preying on guests. After being gifted a diamond by a disguised Dantes, Caderousse invites an appraiser. After the appraiser offers an inadequate (although still generous) sum, Caderousse and his wife murder and rob him so they can keep both the money and the diamond.
- Fire & Blood: During the Dance of the Dragons, Ser Rickard Thorne and his young charge, Prince Maelor Targaryen, stay at the Hog's Head while disguised as smallfolk. The innkeeper, Ben Buttercakes, instructs his stableboy Sly to search Rickard's belongings for coins while he sleeps, but Sly finds something even more valuable — a dragon egg, which only the royal Targaryen family have. When Sly foolishly runs into the common room shouting about his discovery, Rickard kills Ben and then flees the inn.
- Les Misérables: Thénardier is a greedy innkeeper who extorts as much money as he can from his guests.
- Subverted in the Polish narrative poem Pan Tadeusz, where the Jewish innkeeper Jankiel is rather emphatically characterized as honest and generous. He's most directly a Stereotype Flip of the Greedy Jew trope, but it's also apparent that he's specifically meant to subvert the expectation that an innkeeper would be a greedy cheat, especially if they were Jewish.
- The Table, the Donkey, and the Stick: The tailor's eldest son goes to work for a furniture maker and receives a magic table that can cover itself with food. When he goes to stay at an inn, the innkeeper switches it out for a regular table while he's sleeping, and does the same with the middle son's magic donkey that pours gold coins from its mouth. He gets his karma when he tries to steal the youngest brother's magic stick, only to find out that its purpose is to savagely beat anyone who threatens its owner.
- At the beginning of The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan's innkeeper makes a point of inspecting D'Artagnan's purse after he's beaten by Rochefort and charges D'Artagnan for food and medical care the exact sum that D'Artagnan had on his person. And his wife covertly steals D'Artagnan's broken sword to use as a larding needle. After D'Artagnan insinuates that the letter of introduction Rochefort stole from him has financial value, the innkeeper instantly goes from contemptuous to obsequious.
- Wagons West: in California!, Big George owns the biggest establishment around for gold miners to come in for lunch, drinks, and enjoy a prostitute for a while. He will also have some men rob patrons just after they leave his place, if it is clear they have significant money on them.
Theatre
- In The Beaux' Stratagem, the innkeeper Boniface who is in league with a gang of highwaymen and conspires with them to burgle the home of the local noblewoman (who owns the land that the tavern is on), in addition to planning to rob the protagonists, who he mistakenly believes are also highwaymen (but fair game because they aren't part of his gang). Somewhat downplayed in that he is a comedic character, which probably explains why boniface entered the English language
as a term for an (implicitly benevolent) innkeeper.
- Les Misérables: Thénardier is a greedy innkeeper who extorts as much money as he can from his guests. He sings a Villain Song called "Master of the House" where he gleefully boasts about adding charges to their bills for things like having lice and looking in the mirror, and spending as little as possible on the food ("Kidney of a horse, liver of a cat / Filling up the sausages with this and that!")
Video Games
- Below the Root: In this video game sequel to the Green-Sky Trilogy, staying in some houses with a resident who offered you a place to sleep might have the resident steal from you, or even imprison them in their organization's equivalent to a jail.
- Divinity: Original Sin 2: The quest "Love has a Price" in the Driftwood tavern involves the player paying for the most expensive "exotic" room in the tavern, which also happens to come with an Optional Sexual Encounter with a Lizardkin courtesan of exceptional skill. But after the fade to black Sexy Discretion Shot, a group of thugs will burst into the room and attempt to mug you, and it's made very clear the innkeeper was in on the scheme which was designed to catch you without your gear. The player can both pay, talk their way out, or go on a Full-Frontal Assault. If you confront the innkeeper afterward, he'll give you a sob story about doing it to support his daughter, but further investigation will prove he even doesn't have children.
- Final Fantasy VI: The player can stay at Vector's Inn for free, but the innkeeper may steal some gil while you're asleep in a cutscene.
- Pentiment: Though Tassing's innkeep Hanna seems to treat her guests well enough, she's revealed to be a greedy, adulterous woman who's suspected of killing Otto to keep him from revealing a secret that could drive away customers.
- Quest for Glory II: you are given a free place to stay in Rasier, but while you are asleep you will have money stolen from you. There is text should you have no money on you regarding the grumbling the would-be thieves have that you had no money. As you start the next game with the same amount of money regardless of what happens to you, one is wise to spend all one's money on pills at the Shapier apothecary before one leaves for Rasier anyway (as you keep all the pills in your inventory between games).
- In the NSFW game Welcome To The Adventurer Inn, you. As the owner of the titular inn, the innkeeper's goal is to make his inn famous in order to attract more and more adventurers to rest there before they go dungeon crawling, and also indulge himself in drugging and raping particularly attractive female adventurers. The only praiseworthy things about him are that he is willing to work toward his evil goals by genuinely trying to make an impressive inn, and also accompanies his goons in trying to secure necessary materials like monster hides and meat. He also seems to develop genuine affection for his victims, but still...
Webcomics
- The Order of the Stick: Before joining the Order, Elan was servant to the paladin Sir Francois, and frequently caused trouble with his stupidity. The last straw came when Elan passed over several decent-looking establishments and chose to stay at the Rob-U-While-U-Sleep Inn. When the morning came, they found that all of Sir Francois's valuables had vanished.
Western Animation
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: In the season one episode Scooby Doo Mystery Inc S 1 E 2 The Creeping Creatures, The Mystery Gang's vehicle breaks down in a Ghost Town, forcing them to stay a night in a creepy hotel run by an equally creepy hillbilly family. They were initially hospitable enough to let the gang stay. But later, the family dressed as gator creators so they can scare away the gang.
- Toy Story of Terror: Ron Tompkins is a motel owner who trains his pet iguana to steal toys from guests, so he can sell them online.
