History Main / PigInAPoke

* The basic plot of ''[[BurnAfterReading Burn After Reading]]'' is that a few morons blackmail the CIA into buying one of these.

* In [[HarryPotter Harry Potter]], leprechaun's gold vanishes shortly after you pick it up, rendering it completely worthless except for screwing over people you owe money to (which is exactly what it gets used for).

* In ''{{Haven}}'', Duke presents a chef with a box containing an exotic ingredient and names a price. The chef then has to decide if he wants to buy the item without seeing it first. Duke knows what the item is worth but he is not really scamming the chef. They are old friends and it's a game they have been playing for years. Sometimes Duke will overprice the item and sometime he will underprice it making sure that his friend will not feel taken advantage of.

* In ''SouthPark'' when the boys are involved in a tooth fairy scam, Butters buys what he was told were Chinese teeth, but are actually cat teeth.

This trope doesn't just apply to any crooked bargain, though. A Pig In A Poke is something that is represented as one thing, purchased, and turns out to be something else.

This trope normally has two variations.

* '''Type 1:''' A flat out scam. The seller knows exactly what he's selling, ''and'' that it's not worth anywhere near the price he's asking for it. In this type, it's the buyer who gets fleeced.
* '''Type 2:''' An honest gamble in that neither side of the deal knows quite what they've got. In this type, it may be the seller who comes out on the short end of the deal.

[[AC:CardGames]]
* ''MagicTheGathering''
** One can purchase old Arabian Nights boosters, [[CrackIsCheaper albeit at a hefty price.]] However, from time to time, these packs contain as their "rare" one of the five most common cards in the game, a Mountain, in which case you just threw away about $200. [[SarcasmMode Congratulations.]]
*** Except that that specific Mountain will still net you around 30 dollar, making it one of the top 10 most valuable cards of the set.
** The practice of auctioning repacks on eBay involves a large bundle of otherwise-unsellable cards, with a few high-value rares purportedly thrown in, which is then divided up into booster-sized repacks and sold off for up to a couple of dollars each. Needless to say, anyone buying these repacks is quite a trusting individual.

* In ''Roughing It'', MarkTwain describes a common type I: combing an otherwise worthless mine for one tiny chunk of rock containing silver or gold, presenting it to the assay office as an "average" sample, then selling shares in the now grossly overvalued mine.
* This is one of [[Discworld/GoingPostal Moist von]] [[Discworld/MakingMoney Lipwig's]] preferred grifts. He likes to set people up to think ''they're'' ripping ''him'' off. You can't fool an honest man, which is why Moist never tries.

* ''{{Haven}}'' has a variation inbetween Type 1 and 2. Duke presents a chef with a box containig an exotic ingredient and names a price. The chef then has to decide if he wants to buy the item without seeing it first. Duke knows what the item is worth but he is not really scamming the chef. They are old friends and it's a game they have been playing for years. Sometimes Duke will overprice the item and sometime he will underprice it making sure that his friend will not feel taken advantage of.

* ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II'' contains a type II example: a salvager tries to sell you a holocron for 500 credits. When you ask to see it, he says that it doesn't work that way: he doesn't know the item's real value, so you would both be gambling on this deal. (it turns out to be fake)

The old Latin saying [[PretentiousLatinMotto "Caveat Emptor"]] goes to show that this trope is OlderThanFeudalism. Fables about fools purchasing worthless junk at a premium can be found around the world.

* In ''MagicTheGathering'', one can purchase old Arabian Nights boosters, [[CrackIsCheaper albeit at a hefty price.]] However, from time to time, these packs contain as their "rare" one of the five most common cards in the game, a Mountain, in which case you just threw away about $200. [[SarcasmMode Congratulations.]]
** Another example of this from ''Magic'' is the practice of auctioning repacks on eBay. This involves a large bundle of otherwise-unsellable cards, with a few high-value rares purportedly thrown in, which is then divided up into booster-sized repacks and sold off for up to a couple of dollars each. Needless to say, anyone buying these repacks is quite a trusting individual.

* In [[MagicTheGathering Magic the Gathering]], one can purchase old Arabian Nights boosters, [[CrackIsCheaper albeit at a hefty price.]] However, from time to time, these packs contain as their "rare" one of the five most common cards in the game, a Mountain, in which case you just threw away about $200. [[SarcasmMode Congratulations.]]

* The basic plot of [[BurnAfterReading Burn After Reading]] is that a few morons blackmail the CIA into buying one of these.

* In ''SouthPark'' when the boys are involved in a tooth fairy scam, Butters buys what he was told were Chinese teeth, but are actually cat teeth.

* This comes up in the folk song [[http://www.contemplator.com/england/qbrye.html Quare Bungle Rye.]] Jack thinks he's getting good whiskey, but the seller slips him a baby in a basket instead and runs off.
* KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II contains a type II example: a salvager tries to sell you a holocron for 500 credits. When you ask to see it, he says that it doesn't work that way: he doesn't know the item's real value, so you would both be gambling on this deal. (it turns out to be fake)

* {{Haven}} has a variation inbetween Type 1 and 2. Duke presents a chef with a box containig an exotic ingredient and names a price. The chef then has to decide if he wants to buy the item without seeing it first. Duke knows what the item is worth but he is not really scamming the chef. They are old friends and it's a game they have been playing for years. Sometimes Duke will overprice the item and sometime he will underprice it making sure that his friend will not feel taken advantage of.

* [[ConversationalTroping Conversed]] in NeilGaiman's ''AmericanGods'': Wednesday is talking about some of his favorite grifts, one of which involves a [[ViolinScam violin, two grifters, and an upper-class waiter]] as TheMark.

The old saying [[PretentiousLatinMotto "Caveat Emptor"]] goes to show that this trope is OlderThanFeudalism, and fables about fools purchasing worthless junk at a premium can be found around the world.

The old saying [[PretentiousLatinMotto "Caveat Emptor"]] goes to show that this trope is [[OlderThanDirt Older Than Dirt]], and fables about fools purchasing worthless junk at a premium can be found around the world.

* '''Type 2:''' A honest gamble in that neither side of the deal knows quite what they've got. In this type, it may be the seller who comes out on the short end of the deal.

The [[TropeNamer Trope Namer]] is a Middle Ages confidence trick wherein a con artist would sell somebody what is supposed to be a suckling pig in a sack or poke. In fact the hidden meat would be a cat. The same con gives us the phrase "to let the cat out of the bag". Known in Spanish as "dar gato por liebre" (giving a cat instead of a hare) after the Medieval practice of selling cats instead of hares for food.

Compare with BaitAndSwitch, where the seller openly admits that what you're buying isn't what he first described. If the seller ''shows'' you what he's selling, but then uses sleight of hand so that isn't what you actually ''get'', its GoodForBad.

Purchasing one may make you a UnwittingPawn, if [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness some evil organization]] is involved. Note that that a Pig In A Poke usually doesn't actually harm the buyer itself; the only harm done to the purchaser is in purchasing something for way too much. For objects that actually ''do'' harm the purchaser, see [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifact of Doom]] and [[ArtifactOfDeath Artifact of Death]].

* This is one of [[Discworld/GoingPostal Moist von]] [[Discworld/MakingMoney Lipwig's]] preferred grifts. He likes to set people up to think they're ripping him off. You can't fool an honest man, which is why Moist never tries.

* This is one of [[GoingPostal Moist von]] [[MakingMoney Lipwig's]] preferred grifts. He likes to set people up to think they're ripping him off. You can't fool an honest man, which is why Moist never tries.

Compare ViolinScam.

* This article's working title was "Arabian Nights Mountain", from [[MagicTheGathering Magic the Gathering]], in which one can purchase old Arabian Nights boosters, [[CrackIsCheaper albeit at a hefty price.]] However, from time to time, these packs contain as their "rare" one of the five most common cards in the game, a Mountain, in which case you just threw away about $200. [[SarcasmMode Congratulations.]]

* This comes up in the folk song [[url="http://www.contemplator.com/england/qbrye.html" Quare Bungle Rye.]] Jack thinks he's getting good whiskey, but the seller slips him a baby in a basket instead and runs off.

Purchasing one may make you a [[XanatosSucker Xanatos Sucker]], if [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness some evil organization]] is involved. Note that that a Pig In A Poke usually doesn't actually harm the buyer itself; the only harm done to the purchaser is in purchasing something for way too much. For objects that actually ''do'' harm the purchaser, see [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifact of Doom]] and [[ArtifactOfDeath Artifact of Death]].