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** In Creator/GrahamMcNeill 's ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''Nightbringer'', when they arrive on planet, Talhoun comes to greet them. Barzano observes afterward that now he knows he can not trust Ballion. He had suspected that it was so, and now he also knows whose pocket Ballion is in.
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** In Creator/GrahamMcNeill 's Creator/GrahamMcNeill's ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''Nightbringer'', when they arrive on planet, Talhoun comes to greet them. Barzano observes afterward that now he knows he can not trust Ballion. He had suspected that it was so, and now he also knows whose pocket Ballion is in.
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* ''The Fourth Protocol'' by Creator/FrederickForsyth. At the beginning of the novel the protagonist uncovers a FalseFlagOperation feeding information to the Soviets. As the mole is a fervent anti-communist (he thought he was giving information to South Africa) British Intelligence decide to make the best of a bad situation and use him to funnel false information to the Soviets. Later they get information that the Soviets are smuggling a nuclear weapon into the country for an unknown purpose. [[spoiler:TheChessmaster head of SIS, realising there's no way they can track down the remaining components in time, leaks information through the mole that the Soviet operation has been uncovered and the British are closing in. This causes his Soviet counterpart to deliberately blow the operation (which was being conducted by the General Secretary without his approval) in exchange for a guarantee by TheChessmaster that the whole affair will be covered up.]]
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* ''The Fourth Protocol'' ''Literature/TheFourthProtocol'' by Creator/FrederickForsyth. At the beginning of the novel the protagonist uncovers a FalseFlagOperation feeding information to the Soviets. As the mole is a fervent anti-communist (he thought he was giving information to South Africa) British Intelligence decide to make the best of a bad situation and use him to funnel false information to the Soviets. Later they get information that the Soviets are smuggling a nuclear weapon into the country for an unknown purpose. [[spoiler:TheChessmaster head of SIS, realising there's no way they can track down the remaining components in time, leaks information through the mole that the Soviet operation has been uncovered and the British are closing in. This causes his Soviet counterpart to deliberately blow the operation (which was being conducted by the General Secretary without his approval) in exchange for a guarantee by TheChessmaster that the whole affair will be covered up.]]
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* In Brian Jacques's ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'', Cluny knows that Sela will betray him. So he carefully ensures that she believes he wants to batter in the gate when he intends to tunnel. (This trope is ''not'' connected to [[TrademarkFavoriteFood turnip'n'tater'n'beetroot pie]].)
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* In Brian Jacques's ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'', Cluny knows that Sela will betray him. Sela's trying to collect information on his plans in the hopes of getting a reward from Redwall Abbey. So he carefully ensures that she believes he wants to batter in smash through the gate Abbey gates with a battering ram when he really intends to tunnel.tunnel in while the defenders' attention is diverted elsewhere. (This trope is ''not'' connected to [[TrademarkFavoriteFood turnip'n'tater'n'beetroot pie]].)
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%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
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[[FeedTheMole Feeding the Mole]] in {{Literature}}.
----
* Used in the ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'' when Belisarius and his allies specifically choose an assistant who they know is a weasel and who will report breathlessly to their political enemies exactly what they want him to believe is happening. (As a historical in-joke, said assistant is Procopius, whose ''Secret History'' still exists to this day, listing all manner of alleged scandals in the empire of the time.)
* The above tactic is also mentioned in the Literature/BernardSamsonSeries -- unimportant changes in format are placed in top secret reports sent to different government departments, so if a report is leaked the security services can narrow down where it came from.
* Creator/JohnCWright's ''Literature/ChroniclesOfChaos'': In ''Fugitives of Chaos'', Amelia ponders whether Mrs. Wren accidentally or intentionally let slip that they were watching her -- or possibly not, and some convolutions of what pose she wanted to take in order for them to interpret her knowledge.
* Attempted in the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Day of the Cheetah'' when those involved with an experimental fighter project are each shown slightly different plans for modifications. Unfortunately, the DeepCoverAgent sees right through the ruse and decides not to pass on the information. He even invokes this trope when his handler insists he should have done so anyway.
%%* Honoré de Balzac and his friends do this as a prank in ''Literature/TheDeadSkunk''.
* Lord Vetinari, ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'''s premiere MagnificentBastard, uses fiendishly difficult encryptions to protect the semaphore messages he sends to his agents. What would-be codebreakers generally don't know is that he has access to absolutely ''unbreakable'' encryptions, but deliberately only uses the very, very difficult ones.
-->"Otherwise, how would he know what they thought he thought they were thinking?"
* ''The Fourth Protocol'' by Creator/FrederickForsyth. At the beginning of the novel the protagonist uncovers a FalseFlagOperation feeding information to the Soviets. As the mole is a fervent anti-communist (he thought he was giving information to South Africa) British Intelligence decide to make the best of a bad situation and use him to funnel false information to the Soviets. Later they get information that the Soviets are smuggling a nuclear weapon into the country for an unknown purpose. [[spoiler:TheChessmaster head of SIS, realising there's no way they can track down the remaining components in time, leaks information through the mole that the Soviet operation has been uncovered and the British are closing in. This causes his Soviet counterpart to deliberately blow the operation (which was being conducted by the General Secretary without his approval) in exchange for a guarantee by TheChessmaster that the whole affair will be covered up.]]
* ''Literature/FullDisclosure:'' When Ericson’s disgruntled mistress and personal photographer Buffie becomes a source for Bannerman, she is quickly found out and fed information meant to make Bannerman distrust his allies and fear for his job, although this doesn't deter him.
* ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'': ''The Republic of Thieves'' uses a tactic similar to the one from ''Clash of Kings''. Locke and Jean realize that Sabetha has a mole among the Deep Roots party, so they feed three of the most important members a different target, and wait to see which one they go after.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
** ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress''. Professor Bernardo de la Paz explains:
--->''The thing to do with a spy is to let him breathe, encyst him with loyal comrades, and feed him harmless information to please his employers...But it would be the greatest waste to eliminate them -- not only would each spy be replaced with someone new, but also killing these traitors would tell the Warden that we have penetrated his secrets.''
*** Finding the spy involved giving each 'comrade' his own private telephone to "Adam Selene", and so when any number was used by a known Authority figure, boom, spy detected. This has an advantage over identifying them via the secret spy payroll, which could include loyal comrades who were simply taking the Authority's money and feeding them bullshit in return.
*** What they do end up doing is putting all of the known moles together in their own cells, independent from the true ones, so [[FlockOfWolves the moles end up telling on each other]].
** In ''Literature/SixthColumn'', the fake church accepts anyone but checks to see if they are from the invaders; if they are, they are given horrible food, excessively harsh work assignments, and an easy opportunity to escape and tell the overlords that this is just another church and not an underground resistance organization.
* From ''Literature/HonorHarrington'', one particular character is a high-ranking official of the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Committee of]] [[ReignOfTerror Public Safety]], and is assigned as the PoliticalOfficer to a high-ranking [[SpaceNavy admiral]]. What the Committee is unaware of is that it's all an act; the official in question [[ConsummateLiar is not at all loyal to them]], but to the true Constitution of the Republic that had not existed for over two centuries. On top of all that, she's ''[[SecretRelationship in]] [[DatingCatwoman love]]'' [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan with]] the [[OfficerAndAGentleman admiral]] she's supposed to be reporting on. In possibly the most magnificent and dangerous bit of spycraft in the whole 'verse, she hides her true loyalties (and her relationship) for ''years'', feeding a steady stream of misinformation to the other spies on her ship and to the Committee about the admiral (who shares her loyalties). In the end, they become [[spoiler:a critical part of the Thomas Theisman coup that restores the true Republic]]. The character in question is [[spoiler:Eloise Pritchart, the truly elected President of the restored Republic of Haven]], a linchpin of the series and one of its most-loved characters, and the man she loves is [[spoiler:Javier Giscard]], the [[spoiler:Republic's Fleet Admiral]].
* In Suzanne Collins's ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', it's part of the BackStory about why mockingjays are the symbol of rebellion. The story goes like this: During a time of rebellion, the Capitol created jabberjays, an all-male species of mutation that could memorize and repeat human conversation, and let them loose to spy on the rebels. Unfortunately, the rebels soon figured out what was going on and talked about false information in the jabberjays' range, leading to much embarrassment for the Capitol. When the Capitol realized what was going on, they abandoned the jabberjays, expecting them to die out. Instead, they survived by breeding with female mockingbirds, creating mockingjays.
* ''Literature/JackRyan'':
** Used by the CIA, in ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober'', to plant false information regarding the operation to gain control of the titular submarine for the sake of figuring out a longstanding leak. In his {{backstory}}, Ryan became known to the British intelligence community through his proposal for the "Canary trap", which uses a computer program to randomize minor details of reports written more "flashy" than the traditionally staid "govermentese" normally used by the US government, to entice reporters to quote parts verbatim.
** Also used in the {{prequel}} ''Without Remorse'', to determine who leaked news about the Song Tay raid. This culminates with John Kelley confronting the [[StrawmanPolitical liberal stoner kid]] who was the source of the leak and offering him a [[SadisticChoice choice]] between killing himself by lethal injection with heroin earlier taken from a dead pimp, or being shot through the head.
* The ''Literature/JamesBond'' short story "[[Literature/OctopussyAndTheLivingDaylights The Property of a Lady]]", starts when it is revealed the Soviets are rewarding a known mole for her efforts, so [=MI6=] can make more use of this trope.
* In ''Literature/MaraDaughterOfTheNile'', Sheftu, the leader of LaResistance, has discovered evidence that Mara is TheMole for the queen, but is not completely sure. So he has Nekonkh feed her false information as a test of her loyalty. Although Mara ''is'' TheMole (or more accurately, a DoubleAgent), she has also [[BecomingTheMask Become The Mask]], and does not betray Sheftu. Unfortunately, Sahure the juggler was also listening when Nekonkh Fed The Mole, and he is ''also'' TheMole.
* In ''Literature/MrStandfast'', Richard Hannay is asked to help uncover a spy ring that's leaking British military secrets to the Germans during World War I. He assumes at first that the aim is to catch them in the act and arrest them, but Blenkiron quickly and firmly corrects him: they want the ring discovered intact if possible, so that it can be used to feed the Germans with disinformation.
* In Creator/LarryNiven's ''[[Literature/OathOfFealty Oath of Fealty]]'', terrorists are trying to take down an {{arcology}}, and they have inside information about the defenses of the {{arcology}}'s hydrogen pipelines. After a test attack (by unknowing dupes), the security chief makes several upgrades to the defenses -- and tells different people different things about the upgrades. When the terrorists arrive with countermeasures against some, but not all, of the new defenses, he knows who the mole is.
* In Jason Matthews' ''Literature/RedSparrow'', Vanya Egorov attempts to find the mole among his colleagues by employing a "canary trap": give each of them a piece of information with only one difference unique to each individual, and whichever version would come back to him would tell him who the mole was. The mole learns of another colleague's version of the story, allowing him to draw suspicion away from himself for a while. [[spoiler:He later uses this to set his successor up without her knowledge]].
* In Brian Jacques's ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'', Cluny knows that Sela will betray him. So he carefully ensures that she believes he wants to batter in the gate when he intends to tunnel. (This trope is ''not'' connected to [[TrademarkFavoriteFood turnip'n'tater'n'beetroot pie]].)
* In ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', the brothers Cai are fed misinformation so that [[TheStrategist Zhou Yu]] can set up Huang Gai's false defection. Another of Cao's spies, Jiang Gan, is also fed false information that leads to the execution of two of Cao Cao's most capable admirals.
** "UsefulNotes/TheThirtySixStratagems" also have this trope as one of them, and the name for it is "Let the Enemy's own spy sow discord in the Enemy camp".
* ''Literature/SamsonAndDelilah'': Samson clearly knew his wife was trying to kill him, because every time she asked for the source of his super strength and he fed her a lie, armed soldiers would show up to test the lie.
* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': In "His Last Bow", Holmes has been posing as an Irish-American spy for the Germans for some time, feeding them a great deal of false information, meaning the German navy is facing English ships that are faster and better-armed than what they're expecting. Among other things.
--> [[StuffBlowingUp It would brighten my declining years to see a German cruiser navigating the Solent according to the minefield plans which I have furnished.]]
** He also stresses the importance to Watson of collecting the information the Germans have gathered so as to know what is and is not known by them (once they remove what Holmes has been telling them).
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': In ''Literature/AClashOfKings'', Tyrion assumes at least one of three members of the DecadentCourt is Cersei's Mole, and so feeds them all different stories to see which one gets back to her. Tyrion even singles out one of these three whose motives are still mysterious and [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome and tells him everything he's doing and why]], thereby trapping the schemer [[XanatosGambit between the choice of playing along or passing the info and thus letting Tyrion know he's truly an enemy]]. Hell with Littlefinger, Tyrion is the true MagnificentBastard.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** In ''Literature/NewJediOrder'', Mara Jade is given the task of feeding controlled disinformation to the many spies within the Alliance government.
*** A specific case with Tam Elgrin in the ''Enemy Lines'' duology in this series. He's been enslaved and conditioned to spy for the Yuuzhan Vong, and is subjected to intense (and potentially lethal) headaches if he fails to comply. He's also not particularly competent as a spy, and the heroes twig on to him fairly quickly. He ends up sending critical false information to the Yuuzhan Vong. [[spoiler:After Tam is freed from his conditioning, he eventually makes the discovery about the false information (foiling a Yuuzhan Vong infiltrator in the process), and is much relieved that his spying did more harm than good to the Yuuzhan Vong.]]
** In the much earlier-set ''Literature/XWingSeries'', Han Solo was personally flying around slightly-modified sets of orders to check for leaks in communications (quite a valid worry, since the New Republic had lost at least one force to bad intel already). And don't even get started on the plot involving Tycho Celchu (who isn't an Imperial spy, but is suspected [and put on trial for!] being one) and [[spoiler: Erisi Dlarit]], who really is (the real agent's existence is suspected, but not known for sure). [[ChessMaster General Cracken]] and [[MagnificentBastard Ysanne Isard]] are involved, so [[GambitPileup it's gonna get complicated]].
*** Used more simply when it was discovered that there was a mole among one of Rogue Squadron's trading partners. Talon Karrde offered to let them execute her in whichever way they desired -- he's got a really good reputation to uphold, after all, and having your trading partners sold out to the authorities is bad for business -- but they opt to feed her a little information first, letting her find their base in order to draw out the enemy while making it ''look'' like they're still taking ProperlyParanoid precautions to hide it so that a trap won't be suspected. It takes a ''lot'' of money for them to convince Karrde to hold off on executing the traitor until after they're done feeding her.
*** In ''Mercy Kill'', "Face" Loran pulls off a stunning example of this [[spoiler: on ''[[MoleInCharge his boss]]'']]. The Wraiths have been formally disbanded, but the head of Alliance Intelligence feels they might still be useful, so he asks Face to [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether Put The Band Back Together]] for OneLastJob. But Face is suspicious that his reports might end up in enemy hands, so he secretly assembles ''two'' teams of Wraiths (in case one is caught, the other can continue the mission) and sends back reports about a third, entirely fictitious team. [[spoiler: Sure enough, the head of Intelligence passes on the fake dossiers to the villain and unwittingly exposes his true nature to Face, who takes him down.]]
** Attempted in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' to identify the ominous Delta Source once the good guys get the mean to decrypt the reports the Source sends to Thrawn. It doesn't work since [[spoiler: the Delta Source is not a person.]] It ''still'' proves useful because [[spoiler:it pins down the ''location'' of Delta Source, which turns out to be an ingeniously hidden recording system.]]
** In ''Literature/HanSoloAtStarsEnd'', Han has discovered the planet that [[TheAlcatraz the secret CSA prison]] is on, and knows that one of his crew is a mole but not which one. So he has the crew do research on the place. But he tells each of them a slightly incorrect name for the planet, knowing that the Mole would unconsciously look up the ''correct'' name.
* In "A Tall Tail" by Creator/CharlesStross, the Americans come up with the idea of sabotaging the Soviet missile and space program by dreaming up the most technologically ridiculous, [[MadeOfExplodium dangerous]], and unworkable rocket propulsion system they can imagine, and then carefully leaking the information to known Soviet agents except for the supposedly top-secret material which makes the system workable (which doesn't exist), hoping the Soviets will get distracted trying to figure out how the Americans did it, and possibly losing a few test facilities along the way due to the inevitable accidents. [[spoiler:To their utter astonishment, the Soviets ''[[AchievementInIgnorance make it work]].'' [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} Sort of. Once.]]]]
* Suggested as a tactic for figuring out who in their spy network has been compromised in ''Literature/TheTamuli'', although it ends up not happening.
* In ''Literature/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy'' by Creator/JohnLeCarre, the sort of intelligence deemed suitable for leaking to moles is dubbed "Chickenfeed". The cabal of high-level intelligence officials ''believe'' that they are only giving chickenfeed to their pet Soviet mole, while one of their number is in fact feeding the mole with real, vital intelligence. Similarly, they view the intelligence supplied back to them as being gold; Smiley, however, is suspicious from the get-go -- "Topicality is always suspect," he remarks of the first report -- and confirms in the end that it was all Karla's chickenfeed, with just a few scraps of the good stuff at the start in order to bait the hook.
* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': In the ''Literature/TrickstersDuet'', Aly feeds every mole she can find. She even, at one point, manages to get ''herself'' made one of them in ''Trickster's Queen''.
* Once the 'villains' of ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'' learn that Robin is a spy, they tell him a decidedly outlandish story about their alleged plans to report to Mizzamir. The wizard wasn't fooled by the fake intelligence for long, if at all.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''His Last Command'', when Ludd reports Gaunt's unusual behavior to Commissiar Balshin, and apologizes, Gaunt explains that he had counted on it. Balshin would have ignored his report. This way, he could lure her to a place where she could see the truth of his words for herself.
** In Creator/GrahamMcNeill 's ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''Nightbringer'', when they arrive on planet, Talhoun comes to greet them. Barzano observes afterward that now he knows he can not trust Ballion. He had suspected that it was so, and now he also knows whose pocket Ballion is in.
*** In ''Dead Sky Black Sun'', Honsou uses this to destroy an effort to undermine his fortress.
** In William King's ''Literature/SpaceWolf'' novel ''Wolfblade'', when Gabriella's aunt, who married into a different House, gets her some information, Torin and Ragnor discuss the possible permutations of FeedTheMole that might be going on. Even if it's a trap, it might be good information, to be a good bait.
** In Creator/BenCounter's ''Literature/GreyKnights'' novel ''Hammer of Daemons'', Alaric tells an eldar, a fellow captive, that he does not trust eldar because of a certain battle, implying he had fought in it. Later, he refuses to let the eldar on the ship, because his captor had said he had been in that battle, when in truth, Alaric had just heard of it. Only the eldar could have told him that. Then Alaric accuses him of having long been TheMole.
* Discussed several times in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', when Elayne, Perrin, Faile, various Seanchan, and Rand himself deal spies.
* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', Wards member Chariot is a known agent of Coil, a local DiabolicalMastermind. The Wards become aware of this, and decide to use Chariot, because as a powerful [[GadgeteerGenius tinker]] with a specialization in transportation he's highly useful, and so that they can feed Coil misinformation. Coil may or may not have been aware of this, but in any case, it's irrelevant to his plans, which only needed Chariot to be present in one specific battle.
----
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%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
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[[FeedTheMole Feeding the Mole]] in {{Literature}}.
----
* Used in the ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'' when Belisarius and his allies specifically choose an assistant who they know is a weasel and who will report breathlessly to their political enemies exactly what they want him to believe is happening. (As a historical in-joke, said assistant is Procopius, whose ''Secret History'' still exists to this day, listing all manner of alleged scandals in the empire of the time.)
* The above tactic is also mentioned in the Literature/BernardSamsonSeries -- unimportant changes in format are placed in top secret reports sent to different government departments, so if a report is leaked the security services can narrow down where it came from.
* Creator/JohnCWright's ''Literature/ChroniclesOfChaos'': In ''Fugitives of Chaos'', Amelia ponders whether Mrs. Wren accidentally or intentionally let slip that they were watching her -- or possibly not, and some convolutions of what pose she wanted to take in order for them to interpret her knowledge.
* Attempted in the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Day of the Cheetah'' when those involved with an experimental fighter project are each shown slightly different plans for modifications. Unfortunately, the DeepCoverAgent sees right through the ruse and decides not to pass on the information. He even invokes this trope when his handler insists he should have done so anyway.
%%* Honoré de Balzac and his friends do this as a prank in ''Literature/TheDeadSkunk''.
* Lord Vetinari, ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'''s premiere MagnificentBastard, uses fiendishly difficult encryptions to protect the semaphore messages he sends to his agents. What would-be codebreakers generally don't know is that he has access to absolutely ''unbreakable'' encryptions, but deliberately only uses the very, very difficult ones.
-->"Otherwise, how would he know what they thought he thought they were thinking?"
* ''The Fourth Protocol'' by Creator/FrederickForsyth. At the beginning of the novel the protagonist uncovers a FalseFlagOperation feeding information to the Soviets. As the mole is a fervent anti-communist (he thought he was giving information to South Africa) British Intelligence decide to make the best of a bad situation and use him to funnel false information to the Soviets. Later they get information that the Soviets are smuggling a nuclear weapon into the country for an unknown purpose. [[spoiler:TheChessmaster head of SIS, realising there's no way they can track down the remaining components in time, leaks information through the mole that the Soviet operation has been uncovered and the British are closing in. This causes his Soviet counterpart to deliberately blow the operation (which was being conducted by the General Secretary without his approval) in exchange for a guarantee by TheChessmaster that the whole affair will be covered up.]]
* ''Literature/FullDisclosure:'' When Ericson’s disgruntled mistress and personal photographer Buffie becomes a source for Bannerman, she is quickly found out and fed information meant to make Bannerman distrust his allies and fear for his job, although this doesn't deter him.
* ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'': ''The Republic of Thieves'' uses a tactic similar to the one from ''Clash of Kings''. Locke and Jean realize that Sabetha has a mole among the Deep Roots party, so they feed three of the most important members a different target, and wait to see which one they go after.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
** ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress''. Professor Bernardo de la Paz explains:
--->''The thing to do with a spy is to let him breathe, encyst him with loyal comrades, and feed him harmless information to please his employers...But it would be the greatest waste to eliminate them -- not only would each spy be replaced with someone new, but also killing these traitors would tell the Warden that we have penetrated his secrets.''
*** Finding the spy involved giving each 'comrade' his own private telephone to "Adam Selene", and so when any number was used by a known Authority figure, boom, spy detected. This has an advantage over identifying them via the secret spy payroll, which could include loyal comrades who were simply taking the Authority's money and feeding them bullshit in return.
*** What they do end up doing is putting all of the known moles together in their own cells, independent from the true ones, so [[FlockOfWolves the moles end up telling on each other]].
** In ''Literature/SixthColumn'', the fake church accepts anyone but checks to see if they are from the invaders; if they are, they are given horrible food, excessively harsh work assignments, and an easy opportunity to escape and tell the overlords that this is just another church and not an underground resistance organization.
* From ''Literature/HonorHarrington'', one particular character is a high-ranking official of the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Committee of]] [[ReignOfTerror Public Safety]], and is assigned as the PoliticalOfficer to a high-ranking [[SpaceNavy admiral]]. What the Committee is unaware of is that it's all an act; the official in question [[ConsummateLiar is not at all loyal to them]], but to the true Constitution of the Republic that had not existed for over two centuries. On top of all that, she's ''[[SecretRelationship in]] [[DatingCatwoman love]]'' [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan with]] the [[OfficerAndAGentleman admiral]] she's supposed to be reporting on. In possibly the most magnificent and dangerous bit of spycraft in the whole 'verse, she hides her true loyalties (and her relationship) for ''years'', feeding a steady stream of misinformation to the other spies on her ship and to the Committee about the admiral (who shares her loyalties). In the end, they become [[spoiler:a critical part of the Thomas Theisman coup that restores the true Republic]]. The character in question is [[spoiler:Eloise Pritchart, the truly elected President of the restored Republic of Haven]], a linchpin of the series and one of its most-loved characters, and the man she loves is [[spoiler:Javier Giscard]], the [[spoiler:Republic's Fleet Admiral]].
* In Suzanne Collins's ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', it's part of the BackStory about why mockingjays are the symbol of rebellion. The story goes like this: During a time of rebellion, the Capitol created jabberjays, an all-male species of mutation that could memorize and repeat human conversation, and let them loose to spy on the rebels. Unfortunately, the rebels soon figured out what was going on and talked about false information in the jabberjays' range, leading to much embarrassment for the Capitol. When the Capitol realized what was going on, they abandoned the jabberjays, expecting them to die out. Instead, they survived by breeding with female mockingbirds, creating mockingjays.
* ''Literature/JackRyan'':
** Used by the CIA, in ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober'', to plant false information regarding the operation to gain control of the titular submarine for the sake of figuring out a longstanding leak. In his {{backstory}}, Ryan became known to the British intelligence community through his proposal for the "Canary trap", which uses a computer program to randomize minor details of reports written more "flashy" than the traditionally staid "govermentese" normally used by the US government, to entice reporters to quote parts verbatim.
** Also used in the {{prequel}} ''Without Remorse'', to determine who leaked news about the Song Tay raid. This culminates with John Kelley confronting the [[StrawmanPolitical liberal stoner kid]] who was the source of the leak and offering him a [[SadisticChoice choice]] between killing himself by lethal injection with heroin earlier taken from a dead pimp, or being shot through the head.
* The ''Literature/JamesBond'' short story "[[Literature/OctopussyAndTheLivingDaylights The Property of a Lady]]", starts when it is revealed the Soviets are rewarding a known mole for her efforts, so [=MI6=] can make more use of this trope.
* In ''Literature/MaraDaughterOfTheNile'', Sheftu, the leader of LaResistance, has discovered evidence that Mara is TheMole for the queen, but is not completely sure. So he has Nekonkh feed her false information as a test of her loyalty. Although Mara ''is'' TheMole (or more accurately, a DoubleAgent), she has also [[BecomingTheMask Become The Mask]], and does not betray Sheftu. Unfortunately, Sahure the juggler was also listening when Nekonkh Fed The Mole, and he is ''also'' TheMole.
* In ''Literature/MrStandfast'', Richard Hannay is asked to help uncover a spy ring that's leaking British military secrets to the Germans during World War I. He assumes at first that the aim is to catch them in the act and arrest them, but Blenkiron quickly and firmly corrects him: they want the ring discovered intact if possible, so that it can be used to feed the Germans with disinformation.
* In Creator/LarryNiven's ''[[Literature/OathOfFealty Oath of Fealty]]'', terrorists are trying to take down an {{arcology}}, and they have inside information about the defenses of the {{arcology}}'s hydrogen pipelines. After a test attack (by unknowing dupes), the security chief makes several upgrades to the defenses -- and tells different people different things about the upgrades. When the terrorists arrive with countermeasures against some, but not all, of the new defenses, he knows who the mole is.
* In Jason Matthews' ''Literature/RedSparrow'', Vanya Egorov attempts to find the mole among his colleagues by employing a "canary trap": give each of them a piece of information with only one difference unique to each individual, and whichever version would come back to him would tell him who the mole was. The mole learns of another colleague's version of the story, allowing him to draw suspicion away from himself for a while. [[spoiler:He later uses this to set his successor up without her knowledge]].
* In Brian Jacques's ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'', Cluny knows that Sela will betray him. So he carefully ensures that she believes he wants to batter in the gate when he intends to tunnel. (This trope is ''not'' connected to [[TrademarkFavoriteFood turnip'n'tater'n'beetroot pie]].)
* In ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', the brothers Cai are fed misinformation so that [[TheStrategist Zhou Yu]] can set up Huang Gai's false defection. Another of Cao's spies, Jiang Gan, is also fed false information that leads to the execution of two of Cao Cao's most capable admirals.
** "UsefulNotes/TheThirtySixStratagems" also have this trope as one of them, and the name for it is "Let the Enemy's own spy sow discord in the Enemy camp".
* ''Literature/SamsonAndDelilah'': Samson clearly knew his wife was trying to kill him, because every time she asked for the source of his super strength and he fed her a lie, armed soldiers would show up to test the lie.
* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': In "His Last Bow", Holmes has been posing as an Irish-American spy for the Germans for some time, feeding them a great deal of false information, meaning the German navy is facing English ships that are faster and better-armed than what they're expecting. Among other things.
--> [[StuffBlowingUp It would brighten my declining years to see a German cruiser navigating the Solent according to the minefield plans which I have furnished.]]
** He also stresses the importance to Watson of collecting the information the Germans have gathered so as to know what is and is not known by them (once they remove what Holmes has been telling them).
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': In ''Literature/AClashOfKings'', Tyrion assumes at least one of three members of the DecadentCourt is Cersei's Mole, and so feeds them all different stories to see which one gets back to her. Tyrion even singles out one of these three whose motives are still mysterious and [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome and tells him everything he's doing and why]], thereby trapping the schemer [[XanatosGambit between the choice of playing along or passing the info and thus letting Tyrion know he's truly an enemy]]. Hell with Littlefinger, Tyrion is the true MagnificentBastard.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** In ''Literature/NewJediOrder'', Mara Jade is given the task of feeding controlled disinformation to the many spies within the Alliance government.
*** A specific case with Tam Elgrin in the ''Enemy Lines'' duology in this series. He's been enslaved and conditioned to spy for the Yuuzhan Vong, and is subjected to intense (and potentially lethal) headaches if he fails to comply. He's also not particularly competent as a spy, and the heroes twig on to him fairly quickly. He ends up sending critical false information to the Yuuzhan Vong. [[spoiler:After Tam is freed from his conditioning, he eventually makes the discovery about the false information (foiling a Yuuzhan Vong infiltrator in the process), and is much relieved that his spying did more harm than good to the Yuuzhan Vong.]]
** In the much earlier-set ''Literature/XWingSeries'', Han Solo was personally flying around slightly-modified sets of orders to check for leaks in communications (quite a valid worry, since the New Republic had lost at least one force to bad intel already). And don't even get started on the plot involving Tycho Celchu (who isn't an Imperial spy, but is suspected [and put on trial for!] being one) and [[spoiler: Erisi Dlarit]], who really is (the real agent's existence is suspected, but not known for sure). [[ChessMaster General Cracken]] and [[MagnificentBastard Ysanne Isard]] are involved, so [[GambitPileup it's gonna get complicated]].
*** Used more simply when it was discovered that there was a mole among one of Rogue Squadron's trading partners. Talon Karrde offered to let them execute her in whichever way they desired -- he's got a really good reputation to uphold, after all, and having your trading partners sold out to the authorities is bad for business -- but they opt to feed her a little information first, letting her find their base in order to draw out the enemy while making it ''look'' like they're still taking ProperlyParanoid precautions to hide it so that a trap won't be suspected. It takes a ''lot'' of money for them to convince Karrde to hold off on executing the traitor until after they're done feeding her.
*** In ''Mercy Kill'', "Face" Loran pulls off a stunning example of this [[spoiler: on ''[[MoleInCharge his boss]]'']]. The Wraiths have been formally disbanded, but the head of Alliance Intelligence feels they might still be useful, so he asks Face to [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether Put The Band Back Together]] for OneLastJob. But Face is suspicious that his reports might end up in enemy hands, so he secretly assembles ''two'' teams of Wraiths (in case one is caught, the other can continue the mission) and sends back reports about a third, entirely fictitious team. [[spoiler: Sure enough, the head of Intelligence passes on the fake dossiers to the villain and unwittingly exposes his true nature to Face, who takes him down.]]
** Attempted in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' to identify the ominous Delta Source once the good guys get the mean to decrypt the reports the Source sends to Thrawn. It doesn't work since [[spoiler: the Delta Source is not a person.]] It ''still'' proves useful because [[spoiler:it pins down the ''location'' of Delta Source, which turns out to be an ingeniously hidden recording system.]]
** In ''Literature/HanSoloAtStarsEnd'', Han has discovered the planet that [[TheAlcatraz the secret CSA prison]] is on, and knows that one of his crew is a mole but not which one. So he has the crew do research on the place. But he tells each of them a slightly incorrect name for the planet, knowing that the Mole would unconsciously look up the ''correct'' name.
* In "A Tall Tail" by Creator/CharlesStross, the Americans come up with the idea of sabotaging the Soviet missile and space program by dreaming up the most technologically ridiculous, [[MadeOfExplodium dangerous]], and unworkable rocket propulsion system they can imagine, and then carefully leaking the information to known Soviet agents except for the supposedly top-secret material which makes the system workable (which doesn't exist), hoping the Soviets will get distracted trying to figure out how the Americans did it, and possibly losing a few test facilities along the way due to the inevitable accidents. [[spoiler:To their utter astonishment, the Soviets ''[[AchievementInIgnorance make it work]].'' [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} Sort of. Once.]]]]
* Suggested as a tactic for figuring out who in their spy network has been compromised in ''Literature/TheTamuli'', although it ends up not happening.
* In ''Literature/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy'' by Creator/JohnLeCarre, the sort of intelligence deemed suitable for leaking to moles is dubbed "Chickenfeed". The cabal of high-level intelligence officials ''believe'' that they are only giving chickenfeed to their pet Soviet mole, while one of their number is in fact feeding the mole with real, vital intelligence. Similarly, they view the intelligence supplied back to them as being gold; Smiley, however, is suspicious from the get-go -- "Topicality is always suspect," he remarks of the first report -- and confirms in the end that it was all Karla's chickenfeed, with just a few scraps of the good stuff at the start in order to bait the hook.
* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': In the ''Literature/TrickstersDuet'', Aly feeds every mole she can find. She even, at one point, manages to get ''herself'' made one of them in ''Trickster's Queen''.
* Once the 'villains' of ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'' learn that Robin is a spy, they tell him a decidedly outlandish story about their alleged plans to report to Mizzamir. The wizard wasn't fooled by the fake intelligence for long, if at all.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''His Last Command'', when Ludd reports Gaunt's unusual behavior to Commissiar Balshin, and apologizes, Gaunt explains that he had counted on it. Balshin would have ignored his report. This way, he could lure her to a place where she could see the truth of his words for herself.
** In Creator/GrahamMcNeill 's ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novel ''Nightbringer'', when they arrive on planet, Talhoun comes to greet them. Barzano observes afterward that now he knows he can not trust Ballion. He had suspected that it was so, and now he also knows whose pocket Ballion is in.
*** In ''Dead Sky Black Sun'', Honsou uses this to destroy an effort to undermine his fortress.
** In William King's ''Literature/SpaceWolf'' novel ''Wolfblade'', when Gabriella's aunt, who married into a different House, gets her some information, Torin and Ragnor discuss the possible permutations of FeedTheMole that might be going on. Even if it's a trap, it might be good information, to be a good bait.
** In Creator/BenCounter's ''Literature/GreyKnights'' novel ''Hammer of Daemons'', Alaric tells an eldar, a fellow captive, that he does not trust eldar because of a certain battle, implying he had fought in it. Later, he refuses to let the eldar on the ship, because his captor had said he had been in that battle, when in truth, Alaric had just heard of it. Only the eldar could have told him that. Then Alaric accuses him of having long been TheMole.
* Discussed several times in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', when Elayne, Perrin, Faile, various Seanchan, and Rand himself deal spies.
* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', Wards member Chariot is a known agent of Coil, a local DiabolicalMastermind. The Wards become aware of this, and decide to use Chariot, because as a powerful [[GadgeteerGenius tinker]] with a specialization in transportation he's highly useful, and so that they can feed Coil misinformation. Coil may or may not have been aware of this, but in any case, it's irrelevant to his plans, which only needed Chariot to be present in one specific battle.
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