Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught - Television Tropes & Idioms

The Zeroth Commandment: Thou shalt not get caught.

"Statement: I have no idea, master. Cheating seems to be a relevant term only when one is caught in the act. Otherwise it is viewed as intelligence, no?"

HK-47, Knights Of The Old Republic

Rules are made to be broken, and that goes double for these rules.

Basically, the protagonists are given rules which are less instructions for keeping order and safety, and more a Secret Test Of Sneakiness. It's understood by all parties that the rule is not to be followed, and the only question is whether you can break it without getting caught.

This sometimes takes the form of an admonishment not to cheat on an upcoming game/test/whatever, which comes so out-of-the-blue that it can only be interpreted as an encouragement to cheat.

Compare Can't You Read The Sign.

Examples:

Al Bundy says as much in an episode of Married With Children where Al enters himself in an athletic competition for senior citizens. When he's standing victoriously on the podium and holding his medals, he says, "It's only cheating if you get caught."
Space Quest V: At the very beginning of the game, you have to get a perfect score on a multiple choice exam of unusual questions. Luckily, you can look at another test-taker's answers as long as you don't let the resident anti-cheating robot see you.
In a very early Naruto episode, the ninjas-in-training are given a difficult written test with the unusual rule that they cannot be caught cheating more than four times. So, needless to say, all of the skilled students discreetly use their ninja skills to do so without getting caught. Which was, of course, the entire point. (They would have to pass anyway—a few students were plants that actually had correct answers, so copying them was the goal—but it was just a Secret Test Of Character.)
In Breath Of Fire III, there's a minigame where you have to train a scrawny man's skills so he can beat a musclehead in a duel. You get disqualified only if anyone sees you interfere with the fight itself.
In Star Trek II, Kirk reveals that he rigged the Kobayashi Maru test to make the scenario winnable... and got a commendation for "original thinking".
In Real Life, the ever-present Sparta would basically feed its young by encouraging them to steal food. Of course, getting caught would get you punished like you had no permission at all.
In the Discworld Assassins' Guild, student assassins are given a list of places which are "out of bounds". This is defined not as places they can't go, but as places they can't be seen by a master, which should give them lots of practice at the skills required by Guild members.
Unhinged, one of the joke sets for Magic The Gathering has a card called Cheatyface, which you're allowed to put into play for free as long as your opponent doesn't catch you doing it.
Steve Jackson Games' conspiracy-theory themed card game Illuminati has a set of "cheating" rules in which almost anything goes (e.g. stealing money from the bank, misstating the powers of your cards, etc) as long as you don't get caught. (If you do get caught, the only penalty is that you don't get the advantage you were trying to gain with that specific cheating attempt). It is recommended that you play this version of the game only with "very good friends or people you will never see again".
This is, of course, a staple of Professional Wrestling, where the manager or partner of the Heel will get in a few shots while the ref's back is turned.
In Gunnerkrigg Court, Eglamore's advice to Antimony was probably not the opinion of anyone else in the Court. Annie initially criticizes this advice, but she has no trouble following it later.
Eglamore: We have rules for a reason. For your safety. And if you're going to break them, you should try harder to not get caught.
D'arby the Gambler, user of the Osiris Stand in Jojos Bizarre Adventure, has this as his motto. For example, it's not his fault that Polnareff didn't know that, when they were betting on what meat a cat would eat first, the cat belonged to D'arby (and thus D'arby could choose which piece would be eaten).
Truth In Television, for the hiring test for a certain spy agency.
Truth In Television, This trooper's high school history teacher explicitly had this policy for tests and quizzes. Only amongst his honors/advanced class of course.

Not As You Know Them

« Narrative Devices »

Not Helping Your Case

The Moral Substitute

« Morality Tropes »

Not Even Human

My Name Is Inigo Montoya

« Professional Wrestling »

Parts Unknown

Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing

Tools