History Main / OldBeggarTest

[[caption-width-right:350:"''Please, take this [[TheTragicRose rose]] in exchange for shelter from the [[SnowMeansCold bitter cold]]!''"[[note]]He didn't and got himself turned into a beast, and his servants turned into {{Animate Inanimate Object}}s. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Good going, Adam.]][[/note]]]]

* In ''Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarves'' the Evil Queen invokes the fact that Snow White's good nature would make her an obvious candidate to pass the test and so disguises herself as a beggar woman so that she will not be questioned, giving Snow White a poison apple.

Related to GodInHumanForm, BeneathTheMask (if they fake their real personality), SecretIdentity, GodWasMyCopilot, AngelUnaware, KingIncognito, HonestAxe and, if the beggar turns out to be a WickedWitch, a BitchInSheepsClothing. If the SecretTest fails, the trope overlaps with BullyingADragon and, consequently, BoltOfDivineRetribution, a curse, a RevengeByProxy or a FateWorseThanDeath. Compare CharacterWitness and KarmicJackpot.

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!!Examples

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* In ''Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters'', two sisters are on their way to meet the king in hopes of marrying him. They are both stopped by a beggar and one is kind to her but the other one isn't. It turns out the beggar was the king in disguise and he marries the one who was nice to him.

->''"But then, one winter's night, an old beggar woman came to the castle and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the Prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for [[TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside Beauty is found within]]. And when he dismissed her again, the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a [[OurFairiesAreDifferent beautiful Enchantress]].\\

The Prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that [[JerkAss there was no love in his heart]]. And as punishment, she [[{{Curse}} transformed]] him into a [[BalefulPolymorph hideous beast]], and placed a powerful spell on the castle, and [[DisproportionateRetribution all who lived there]]."''

* [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]]: Zeus and Hermes disguised themselves as beggars and went from house to house, with everyone refusing them food and shelter except Philemon and Baucis, who even wanted to kill their guardian goose to properly welcome the gods. To reward the old couple, Zeus destroyed the town but spared their house, turning it into a temple, and when they died[[note]]simultaneously, that being the favor they had requested from the gods so that neither of them would have to live without the other[[/note]], turning both of them into trees.

* Mystery Shoppers can be this for retail stores. Paid by the corporate headquarters to pretend to be an ordinary shopper in order to access what quality of service the employees are giving.

* Invoked in the ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "Freak City", where Finn and Jake find an old man who asks for help [[GenreSavvy and immediately recognize he's actually magic]]. Unfortunately, the beggar in question is actually a horrible {{trickster|Archetype}} named Magic Man, who [[BalefulPolymorph turns Finn into a giant foot]] for ''helping''. Finn thinks this was because his intent was a reward rather than helping for the sake of itself, but realizes he's just doing it ForTheEvulz--whereupon Magic Man changes him back for finally "appreciating" [[CardCarryingVillain what a jerk he is]].

Since this is not a trope concerning with the character itself, but with the event caused by their appearence in the work, it acts as a SubTrope of SecretTestOfCharacter. It differs from GodWasMyCopilot and AngelUnaware for the length of their relationship with their innkeepers: in the aforementioned tropes, god-like disguided characters will spend a significant amount of time with the main characters, whereas beggars examples usually begin and end in a single day. Moreover, villains and WellIntentionedExtremist figures may hide under the cloak of a beggar, averting the positive effects of the other tropes.

[[caption-width-right:350:"''Please, take this [[TheTragicRose rose]] in exchange for shelter from the [[SnowMeansCold bitter cold]]!''"]]

Related to GodInHumanForm, BeneathTheMask (if they fake their real personality), SecretIdentity, GodWasMyCopilot, AngelUnaware, KingIncognito and, if the beggar turns out to be a WickedWitch, a BitchInSheepsClothing. If the SecretTest fails, the trope overlaps with BullyingADragon and, consequently, BoltOfDivineRetribution, a curse, a RevengeByProxy or a FateWorseThanDeath. Compare CharacterWitness and KarmicJackpot.

** In the first episode of ''Series/HartToHart'', protagonist Jonathan Hart was shown undercover as a dock worker within his company. He promptly fires the JerkAss executive running the division and rides off in the company limo.

* In the ''Blood & Wine'' expansion of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', after lifting a curse placed on a noble lady, she tells you she was cursed by a beggar after she refused to give him food and shelter when he stopped by.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': After Manjyome left Duel Academy in disgust after a second humiliating loss to Misawa, he ended up shipwrecked and near North Academy, Duel Academy's rival school, which was situated in an arctic tundra. He was told by a disheveled man by the door that they wouldn't let anyone in without a full deck of forty cards, and there were cards hidden around the area; he himself had found 39, but was too exhausted to keep looking. Because the man refuses to sell them, Manjyome goes out and searches for his own, finding forty of them; but when he fears the man might freeze to death, he gives him one so he can go in (fibbing and saying he has 41). When the man goes in, Manjyome wonders what he's going to do ''now''; and suddenly he sees another card, which later becomes essential to winning a duel later in the episode. [[spoiler:He later finds out that this was a SecretTestOfCharacter; the guy was North Academy's chancellor.]]

* In the ''Blood & Wine'' expansion of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', after lifting a curse placed on a noble lady, she tells you she was cursed by a beggar after she refused to give him food and shelter when he stopped by.

Expect the puny mortals to remain clueless about their guests' identity, even if their world or oral tradition tells about the very situation they're stuck in. If TheReveal occurs after visits to several homes, there might be a general reward and punishiment for those who either helped her/him or rejected her/him.

Since this is not a trope concerning with the character itself, but with the event caused by his or her appearence in the work, it acts as a SubTrope of SecretTestOfCharacter. It differs from GodWasMyCopilot and AngelUnaware for the length of their relationship with their innkeepers: in the aforementioned tropes, god-like disguided characters will spend a significant amount of time with the main characters, whereas beggars examples usually begin and end in a single day. Moreover, villains and WellIntentionedExtremist figures may hide under the cloak of a beggar, averting the positive effects of the other tropes.

* The French movie "L'aile ou la Cuisse" starts with a restaurant owner ordering his staff to shower preferential treatment on someone he's identified as working for a food critic, completely ignoring an old woman's requests for water. While the man does work for the critic, his boss (played by Creator/LouisDeFunes) was DisguisedInDrag as the old woman, and gives an appropriately scathing review.