History Main / DisproportionateReward

A contrasting SisterTrope to DisproportionateRetribution, where the character seeks revenge on another to this extent. Also contrast DudeWheresMyReward (where the reward is ''smaller'' (instead of bigger) than what you have deserved), AndroclesLion and CharacterWitness (who give a pretty much proportionate reward).

--'''Mr. Parsimonious:''' But before I go, you simply must have these jelly babies. And this ham. And this jeweled box will probably come in handy. And you simply must have these piglets. And now I must leave. But not before giving you this encyclopedia and this haunch of venison. Bye!

* ''Manga/RamenFighterMiki'' presents Miki, who is willing to be a substitute pitcher for a junior baseball league after a player helps her to find an address. Kankuro does the same and is willing to help Megumi to get revenge on Miki in exchange for her care after another of Miki's beatings. However, Miki only winds up using the reward money to goof off at her job.
* {{M|adLove}}isa [[{{Yandere}} Amane]] of ''Manga/DeathNote'' is a rather dark deconstruction of this; after resident VillainProtagonist [[LightIsNotGood Light]] [[SerialKillerKiller Yagami]] kills off the guy who killed Misa's parents, she declares her undying love and devotion to him and his vigilante justice; unfortunately for her, Light is a ruthless MagnificentBastard who takes advantage of her as a meaningless pawn in his bloody games. But no matter how obvious it becomes that he does what he does [[ItsAllAboutMe only for his own reasons]], Misa loves him.
-->'''Misa''': [Love]... What a beautiful way to kill.
* In ''Manga/DragonBall'' when Goku was looking for Bulma's house for the first time he gave a woman who told him to ask a cop for directions a wad of cash (500,000 zenny). Justified that Goku does not know the value of money and he came to believe that you paid people in the city for advice.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', bounties seem ''astronomically'' high, if you compare bounties placed on RealLife pirates of the Elizabethan and Victorian Era to those in the anime. For instance, Buggy, the first ArcVillain with a Devil Fruit power, has a bounty of 15 million Berries at the start of the series, and is ''not'' considered dangerous; for real pirates, a bounty of £6 would be considered high even for someone wanted for murder (of course, £6 was considered a lot of money two centuries ago, but it was not nearly enough to buy back then what 15 million Berries can buy in the One Piece world.) Bounties can go all the way to 5 '''billion''' Berries, such as for the King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger (who willingly turned himself, since he was dying of a disease anyway, and used his execution to spark the Great Pirate Era). The trope is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] since pirates with excessively high bounties have a variety of superpowers that can make them more dangerous.

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': Delirium of the Endless has a habit of giving rewards to mortals who are nice to her or who do things for her. Since she is the physical personification of insanity and her "gifts" usually entail some sort of mental illness, it's usually best to politely decline.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

-->'''Mrs. Potato Head''': "You saved their lives? Oh, they're so adorable! Let's adopt them!" \\
'''Alien Toys''': "Daddy!" \\
'''Mr. Potato Head''': "Ohhhhhhhh..."

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' during "Down in New Orleans" Big Daddy [=LaBouff=] throws a paperboy a big wad of cash for ''one'' newspaper. This is an EstablishingCharacterMoment for Big Daddy to highlight his generosity.

* ''Film/MysteryTeam''. The protagonists deal with murderous drug dealers, strippers, disgusting toilets and drinking dog urine... for a dime.

* In the ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' book ''Literature/{{Deathmoor}}'', you're competing against your [[TheRival rival]], Fang-zen of Jitar, on a quest to rescue a princess. You're doing this out of altruism since the King is your benefactor, Fang-zen on the other hand only accepts the quest with ''half the kingdom'' as his fee.

* In ''The Diamont Chariot'', Literature/ErastFandorin considers saving the life and freedom of {{Yakuza}} Masahiro Shibata a very natural thing, yet he also manages to save his personal honor, prompting "Masa" to become his lifelong BattleButler in return.
* PlayedForLaughs (at first) in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Toot-toot (a faerie) is eternally grateful to Harry Dresden, because Harry feeds him [[TrademarkFavoriteFood pizza]]. He puts together a little faerie militia to work for Harry and protect his stuff, who are paid in pizza. At one point, Toot-toot attacks an EldritchAbomination for Harry. Faeries take their concept of reward and debt very seriously. This all results in Toot-toot becoming a badass (for a tiny faerie), and Harry begins to take Toot-toot more seriously.
** Shifted over, then zig-zagged with regards to the bounty on [[spoiler: Donald Morgan]] in ''Proven Guilty''. The reward given is five million dollars, which, given the mark's status, reputation and proven lethality, is a pittance. However, Harry muses that the ''real'' reward is not the money, but the favors the mark's enemies (who are many and powerful) would be willing to do whomever brings the mark in, and the money is less of a reward or even a taster, and more of an indication of just how far-reaching those favors might be.
** Then there's [[spoiler: Goodman Grey]] in ''Skin Game'' who aids Harry in robbing [[PhysicalGod Hades]], swindling [[FallenAngel Nicodemus]] and fighting off a blood-crazed wendigo for the princely sum of one dollar.
* The villain of a Creator/SidneySheldon novel is shown to have a few PetTheDog moments when it's revealed that while he ruthlessly destroys anyone who crosses him, he also generously rewards anyone who helps him. A poor fisherman who once gave him food and shelter finds himself the owner of a shipping fleet, while a prostitute who similarly aided him is given a grand hotel.

* In ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfStefonRudel'', Stefón is given two time machines for a rather small successful military operation. Later all students get a day off because of something he did.

* In the Argentinian soap ''Los Roldán'' (remade as ''Los Reyes'' in Colombia and ''Los Sánchez'' in Mexico), a humble man finds a random old lady near the edge of a bridge crying for having been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and convinces her to not commit suicide; later the lady, who just happened to be one of the richest businesswoman in the country, hires him as the president of her company with a exorbitant salary, makes his family move to her lavish mansion, and essentially changes her will to benefit them all. In the beginning this seems like this trope, but it's later subverted [[spoiler:when it's revealed that the woman was [[LukeIAmYourFather the protagonist's biological mother]], forced to abandon him when he was a baby; their bridge encounter was truly fortuitous and she didn't recognize him until later. Because she didn't have any other family, the only thing she could do was give him his rightful inheritance.]]

* The tale of Yallery Brown is this. A kindhearted boy was resting in a field when he heard a sound like a child in distress. But what he discovered instead was a tiny ragged old man with skin the color of mustard trapped beneath a stone. The boy helped the tiny man, whose name was Yallery Brown, lifting the stone off him, and the grateful little man promised to grant the boy one wish. The boy asked for help with his daily chores. Yallery Brown said he'll grant the wish, but with one condition: the boy must never thank him. The boy discovered the next day that his chores were doing themselves -- the broom was sweeping the floor, the grindstone was grinding corn, and so on. This was pretty cool at first, but after a while people began to whisper that the boy was a warlock, and he grew concerned about his life. He called up Yallery Brown to tell him, [[UnwantedAssistance "thank you for your help, but it's not necessary anymore."]] This enraged Yallery Brown, who cursed the boy for breaking the taboo, and Yallery Brown was as good as his word, causing the boy no end of trouble until the end of his life. In some versions of the story, this is because the boy eventually grew distraught enough to kill himself.

--> '''Mr. Parsimonious:''' But before I go, you simply must have these jelly babies. And this ham. And this jeweled box will probably come in handy. And you simply must have these piglets. And now I must leave. But not before giving you this encyclopedia and this haunch of venison. Bye!

* ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'': Deconstructed because [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Cyrano]] and Roxane had a [[BlueAndOrangeMorality very unusual set of personal ethics.]]
** At Act I Scene VII, Ligniere begs Cyrano to let him sleep in his house to avoid an ambush. Cyrano is so enchanted with Ligniere's gesture of CourtlyLove to a Lady that he insists on fighting the One Hundred Thugs hired to punish Ligniere. Justified because Cyrano is a Gascon and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality they have a rather strange set of personal ethics]]... [[SociopathicHero and because Cyrano is looking for a challenge]] and [[OneManArmy one hundred men are more or less that for him]]

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', you're asked to call in a fairly small debt on a guy in [[WretchedHive the Den]], but can instead pay his debt for him, since he claims he's working on a master plan that will definitely pay off but will take some money. If you return later in the game, he's become fabulously wealthy after striking it big at the casino and showers you with riches and powerful items because you helped him when he really needed it.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': Potentially, being inducted into the Brotherhood of Steel. You're required to install a doohickey on a Black Mountain transmitter. However, [[SequenceBreaking you could have already completed the Black Mountain quest]], which means you can casually stroll there without firing a shot at the Super Mutants, plant the bug in plain sight, and stroll back down to receive a shiny set of Power Armor, Power Armor training, and a new safehouse. Even compared to the previous mission, one of the longest and most dangerous [[FetchQuest Fetch Quests]] of the game, this mission is a breeze.
* Depending on how you help someone, this can happen in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''. For instance, if you sell some firewood to the innkeeper at Whiterun, you can sleep there for free and take almost anything she owns. This is one of the more extreme cases, but there are worse.

* The ''VideoGame/Ultima7Part1TheBlackGate'' expansion ''Forge of Virtue'' will provide you with an absurdly powerful InfinityPlusOneSword and completely maxed-out stats (and the strength stat is ''doubled'' on top of that). To get them, you have to pass three tests and then banish an evil artifact. Only the Test of Courage is noticeably challenging with any actual enemies, and the Test of Truth can be done in under a minute if you know what you're doing.
* ''VideoGame/{{Arcanum}}'' has an example that cuts both ways. To Hieronymus Maxim, a prototype healing robot, a high-tech gun and training you to be a master mechanic is nowhere near enough to properly thank you for saving his life's work. To the player, it's a ''huge'' reward for [[spoiler: picking up, and not getting rid of, a camera in the crash site.]]
* One of the most excessive examples comes from ''VideoGame/GearHead.'' It's played so straight and is so exaggerated that it's very nearly a parody of the trope. One of your first tasks in the [[NoobCave starting town of Hogye]] is a RatStomp. Singular, that is. One rat, with at most 10 hit points. You can literally with this fight by stepping on it. Kill this rat and the overjoyed garage owner gives you ''a spare HumongousMecha that he had lying around.'' It's not one of the basic civilian models like the mining robot you can get from the bottom of the nearby AbandonedMine. He basically gives you a perfectly intact and functional war machine, strikingly similar to a ''[[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Griffin Griffin]]'' from ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' has something like this as a RunningGag in its ''Legacy of the First Blade'' DLC pack. The Eagle Bearer keeps getting rewarded by an overly proud guy who's outraged to be in debt to anyone, even though none of the help the Eagle Bearer lent was intentional - it all happened as a byproduct of other, far more important actions. The rewards aren't all that valuable, but they're so numerous that the guy ends up bankrupting himself about halfway through his questline. Neither him nor the Eagle Bearer are happy with the whole situation, but fortunately there are ways to finish the affair amicably, and it's all PlayedForLaughs anyway.

* In the world of [[http://foxtails.magickitsune.com/ Fox Tails]], kitsunes pay back ''everything'' disproportionately, and saying [[UnwantedAssistance Stop Helping Me!]] is pretty much a deadly insult.

* Combining this trope with HeroismWontPayTheBills, In the ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' episode, "A Very Special Blossom", the Girls want The Mayor to pay them $2,000 for saving the city from Mojo Jojo, who lost his temper when he couldn't find a model ship to build. The $2,000, of course, being used to pay for the Pro Excellence 2000 golf clubs they want to buy the Professor for Father's Day. {{Subverted|Trope}} in that The Mayor doesn't have that kind of money.
* In an ImagineSpot in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' special, "Arthur's Perfect Christmas", Arthur is called the Perfect Child, and is rewarded with the Marc Brown Certificate of Existence, and a spot in the Heroes of the 20th Century Parade, all because he gave his Mother a glass bird for Christmas to replace the one that he broke the previous year.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In his first major appearance, the April Fool agrees to help Timmy pull pranks on his friends simply because Timmy gave him a stick of gum.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has done this twice so far, Once as a major plot point in "Spike at your Service" (Spike helping Applejack for saving him, despite [[UnwantedAssistance not being helpful]]), and once as a gag in "Rarity takes Manehattan" (Rarity tipping a bellhop with a large gem several times throughout the episode).
-->'''Bellhop:''' ...Uh, Miss, I didn't do anything!

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', bounties seem ''astronomically'' high, if you compare bounties placed on RealLife pirates of the Elizabethan and Victorian Era to those in the anime. For instance, Buggy, the first ArcVillain with a Devil Fruit power, has a bounty of 15 million Berries at the start of the series, and is ''not'' considered dangerous; for real pirates, a bounty of £6 would be considered high even for someone wanted for murder (of course, £6 was considered a lot of money two centuries ago, but it was not nearly enough to buy back then what 15 million Berries can buy in the One Piece world.) Bounties can go all the way to 5 '''billion''' Berries, such as for the King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger(who willingly turned himself, since he was dying of a disease anyway, and used his execution to spark the Great Pirate Era). The trope is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] since pirates with excessively high bounties have a variety of superpowers that can make them more dangerous.

* Minato in ''Manga/{{Hyakko}}'' follows Torako around, trying to help her, after Torako does her a favor. HilarityEnsues.

* ''Series/TheBurnsAndAllenShow'' had an episode where Gracie agrees to host a wedding for the daughter of a woman who "did (her) a wonderful favor!" After all [[HilarityEnsues hilarity has ensued]], George asks what this amazing favor was. [[spoiler: She helped give Gracie's car a push.]]

** ''HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'': Harry does an interview telling the world of Voldemort's return, which the entire school is promptly banned from reading or discussing by Umbridge. Harry's teachers, wanting to praise Harry for his bravery in speaking out but unable to admit to having read the article, find other excuses to reward him, with Professor Sprout giving twenty points to Gryffindor for Harry handing her a watering can.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''.
** Kreacher the house elf, [[{{Jerkass}} of all people]], gives this to the heroes. Hermione explains that house elves are people too (well, they have feelings too, okay?), so when Harry is kind to him and makes him felt valued, Kreacher bursts into tears, bodily teleports Mundungus Fletcher in for questioning, and cleans the Black house from top to bottom, providing them with delicious food. What specifically prompts his gratitude is being given a possession of "Master Regulus's". He probably never received gifts even from people who were nice to him. The Black house almost feels like home soon.
** The same goes for Dobby, who spends the rest of his life being grateful to Harry for freeing him from his former masters. This leads to him bringing Harry a crucial item needed to solve the Second Task in the fourth book, as well as helping to spy on Malfoy in the sixth and [[spoiler:dying to save them all in the seventh book]]. Justified in that Harry really did give him a shot at a much better life (working at Hogwarts is much nicer than working for the Malfoy family), but Dobby still goes overboard (he seriously considers throwing himself out of a tower if he doesn't fulfill Harry's request, he goes without sleep to spy on Malfoy, etc).