History RefugeInAudacity / Literature

*** In yet another instance, Jaime has sworn an oath the intends to keep, which among other things prevents him from taking up arms against Catelyn Stark's (née Tully's) family. So how does he get her brother Edmure Tully to hand over his castle? He threatens gruesome and graphic violence against Edmure and his family, relying on his reputation as a cruel and remorseless Blood Knight and getting Edmure to cave so Jaime won't actually have to take up arms against him (which he couldn't).

*** Jaime is known to be the best swordsman on the continent - with this right hand. He comes back to King's Landing having lost his sword-hand, but he's still the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. One of the newer Kingsguards refuses to be led by him, so Jaime challenges him to a duel. He's very aware that he'd lose, but banks on the other Kingsguard being too afraid to go up against him given his reputation. (Plus the duel poses kind of a no-win scenario for the other Kingsguard: either lose against an off-handed cripple, which would be embarrassing beyond belief, or explain to the Queen Regent how you killed her beloved brother, which would be less embarrassing but infinitely more painful.)
*** In another instance, Jaime comes across his captors forcing Brienne of Tarth to fight a live bear with a blunted tourney sword, all but guaranteeing her death despite all of her skill. What does he do? He jumps into the bear-pit, unarmed, steps in front of Brienne, and start half-heartedly attacking the bear by kicking sand at it. He knows perfectly well that the bear will kill him in seconds, but banks (correctly) on his captors shooting it down. They can afford to watch Brienne getting killed but he himself is much too important a hostage to risk merely for the men's cheap entertainment.
*** In yet another instance, Jaime has sworn an oath the intends to keep, which amongst other things prevents him from taking up arms against Catelyn Stark's (née Tully's) family. So how does he get her brother Edmure Tully to hand over his castle? He threatens violence, relying on his reputation as a cruel and remorseless Blood Knight getting Edmure to cave so Jaime won't actually have to take up arms against him (which he can't).

** Tyrion'solder brother Jaime uses this trope as well, in fact he pulls those kinds of gambits continuously after his return. Upon returning to King's Landing in the third book, his first act is to walk right into ''the holiest cathedral in the land'', where the corpse of [[spoiler:the King (and his own child-by-incest)]] is lying, and send all the priests away so he can have some ''alone time'' with his sister ''right there''. She's menstruating at the time too, just to add to it.
*** Jaime is known to be the best swordsman on the continent - with this right hand. He comes back to King's Landing having lost his sword-hand, but he's still the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. One of the newer Kingsguards refuses to be led by him, so Jaime challenges him to a duel. He's very aware that he'd lose, but banks on the other Kingsguard being too afraid to go up against him, given his reputation. (Plus the duel poses kind of a no-win scenario for the other Kingsguard: either lose against an off-handed cripple, which would be embarrassing beyond belief, or explain to the Queen Regent how you killed her beloved brother, which would be less embarrassing but infinitely more painful.)
*** In another instance, Jaime comes across his captors forcing Brienne of Tarth to fight a live bear with a blunted tourney sword, all but guaranteeing her death despite all of her skill. What does he do? He jumps into the bear-pit, unarmed, steps in front of Brienne, and start half-heartedly attacking the bear by kicking sand at him. He knows perfectly well that the bear will kill him in seconds, but banks (correctly) on his captors shooting it down. They can afford to watch Brienne getting killed but he himself is much too important a hostage to risk merely for the men's entertainment.

** Tyrion'solder brother Jaime uses this trope as well. Upon returning to King's Landing in the third book, his first act is to walk right into ''the holiest cathedral in the land'', where the corpse of [[spoiler:the King (and his own child-by-incest)]] is lying, and send all the priests away so he can have some ''alone time'' with his sister ''right there''. She's menstruating at the time too, just to add to it.

** Tyrion's brother uses this trope as well. Upon returning to King's Landing in the third book, his first act is to walk right into ''the holiest cathedral in the land'', where the corpse of [[spoiler:the King (and his own child-by-incest)]] is lying, and send all the priests away so he can have some ''alone time'' with his sister ''right there''. She's menstruating at the time too, just to add to it.

** In ''Literature/DeadBeat'' Harry is in dire straits as several necromancers are planning to invoke a spell to turn one of them into a minor god. He is stuck on the other side of town and cannot break any laws of magic, even if it is to save the world, which includes raising human undead to fight. His solution: [[spoiler:Resurrect a 65 million year old T-Rex and ride her into battle. As she isn't human, technically he didn't break the law]] and he saves the day.

** Later in the ''Charles Augustus Milverton'' story, when Lestrade is looking for the two (ultimately innocent) suspects of murdering the title character, Sherlock Holmes points out to Lestrade that the description of one of the suspects may fit that of John Watson. They laugh it off, without Lestrade ever realizing that Holmes and Watson are actually those two suspects.

** Carrot's very good at taking laws literally. He accuses someone trying to dismiss a golem[[note]]who are legally considered "property" and not "people"[[/note]] as ''littering''.
** He also combines this nicely with SerialEscalation: Golems are being attacked, [[spoiler:since it's believed that one has started committing murder,]] but Carrot believes in giving them the benefit of the doubt. His reasoning becomes: If golems are people, "what's being done to them is wrong."; If they're property, they're not responsible. The owner of the golem says "I don't want it any more"; that's ''littering''. "Here, ''you'' can have it."; ''that's bribery''. The net result: after a bit of wrangling, [[spoiler:the golem ''owns itself'']].

** This quote by Colonel Korn, spoken in justification of awarding bombardier Yossarian a medal for going over his target twice against regulations after failing to drop his bombs the first time: "You know, that might be the answer--to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail."

* In Joseph Heller's ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'', Milo Minderbinder corners the market in Egyptian cotton. Unfortunately for him, he discovers he can't find a buyer for it. Yossarian tells him to bribe the US government into buying it. When he asks how, Yossarian replies that if he makes the bribe big enough and spreads the word, the right person will contact him. If questioned, just tell people that the national security of the USA depends on a strong Egyptian cotton industry. [[BavarianFireDrill Be straightforward and act like you are doing nothing wrong]] and it will work. Sadly, this has also worked in RealLife.

** This quote by Colonel Korn, spoken in justification of awarding bombardier Yossarian a medal for going over his target twice after failing to drop his bombs the first time: "You know, that might be the answer--to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail."

* ''Literature/TheFrugalWizardsGuideForSurvivingMedievalEngland'': Thokk tells the protagonist that her trick for pretending to be a witch is to act like she's following "ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers". After all, no frail 80-year-old lady would travel across a bandit-infested countryside alone if they ''weren't'' a witch...

* OlderThanFeudalism example in ''Literature/TheBible'': In Habakkuk 1:5 "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing such a thing in your days that you would not believe even I if told you."

** Later, he has to deal with the Icemen, a race of telepathic yetis living in the lands north of Alera. They've been at war with Alera for hundreds of years and constantly attempt to get control of the Shieldwall, a massive fortress stretching across the border which was created to keep them out. Tavi does ''not'' need this distracting him, since [[spoiler:the HordeOfAlienLocusts have eaten half the continent]]. His solution? [[spoiler:''give'' the Icemen the Shieldwall, then rent it back from them.]]

** ''Literature/MakingMoney'' featured the most gloriously audacious moment of his entire career to screw over a blackmailer. Said blackmailer is threatening to expose the fact that Moist was a crook. so what does he do? [[spoiler:He gets on the stand in front of ''the entire city'' and admits it.]] As he waited for this crucial moment, he witnessed a cute dog named Mr. Fusspot come skirting out behind a curtain in to the middle of the room chasing after and wanting to chew a thick leather vibrating dildo. No one dare bat an eye at it. Moist decided if he lived in a world where that can happen and be accepted, he can make his confession on the stand.

** Tavi (a captain in the Legion at the time) disobeys a direct order given by a commanding officer who would love to have an excuse to have Tavi removed from command, breaks into the strongest prison in the country to free the a leader of the enemy Canim, and brokers a truce with them, again against orders. How does he get out of it? He proposes to the First Lord ([[spoiler:his grandfather]]) an amnesty for his former countrymen who served the Canim in certain unusual circumstances, but it's phrased in such a way that it would apply to himself as well.

* ''Literature/TwentySixSixtySix'': Klaus practically runs on this after [[spoiler: he's thrown in prison. He even has a cell phone, which he uses to contact the outside world whenever he wants.]] ''Everyone'' knows and goes along with it.

** Tavi (a captain in the Legion at the time) disobeys a direct order given by a commanding officer who would love to have an excuse to have Tavi removed from command, breaks into the strongest prison in the country to free the a leader of the enemy Canim, and brokers a truce with them, again against orders. How does he get out of it? He proposes to the First Lord ([[spoiler: his grandfather]]) an amnesty for his former countrymen who served the Canim in certain unusual circumstances, but it's phrased in such a way that it would apply to himself as well.

** In ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', two armies are about to fight a battle. When Commander Vimes protests that they can't be arrested, Carrot does not see why not. They could charge them with Action Likely to Cause a Breach of Peace. He then ''does it successfully'' and among other charges: Loitering with Intent, and Loitering ''within'' Tent[[note]]"Hah!"[[/note]], one count of offensive language for the commanding general who protests this (this is commanding officer of Vimes' own city by the way) and Carrying Concealed Weapons because ''he'' isn't looking at the weapons at the time.

** Cohen qualifies, too. At one point, he explains to a group of soldiers that they aren't as scary as they could be, and reminds them of "the element of ''SURPRISE''!" before slaughtering them all in five seconds. In ''Literature/InterestingTimes'' he intends to steal [[spoiler: the entire Agatean Empire.]] The idea is ''so'' audacious that nobody thought to defend against such a plan and it works flawlessly.

** The following book, ''Literature/SummerKnight'' has Harry taking on [[spoiler: Aurora]], a PersonOfMassDestruction closing on the PhysicalGod category of power, with...[[spoiler: a bunch of the Little Folk armed with plastic-handled box knives. Whose blades are made of [[ColdIron steel]].]] Earlier, he'd charged into a battle between different factions of TheFairFolk yelling, "[[Franchise/PeterPan I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES!]]"

** Lord Wyman Manderly, you sneaky, dramatically ''dark'' [[GuileHero Guile Anti-Hero]], you. Where to start? Two words: [[spoiler: [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies Frey Pie.]]]] Taking time to plot revenge against an entire family is pretty usual in this series. Killing people under the radar? Standard practice if you've got half a synapse working. [[spoiler: Killing three of [[HateSink that family]] undetected and totally to the letter of unwritten social convention, baking them in massive pies, preceding to offer them as a "gift", along with other provisions, at a wedding feast (so, technically, you haven't even [[SacredHospitality accepted their salt]]--just to be sure), while requesting a folk-song commemorating [[Theatre/TitusAndronicus a very similar revenge-plot]] as you watch your other, future targets chow down while you're busily ploughing through massive portions yourself, not ''just'' so they'll eat up unsuspecting? Audacious, bro! And, he hasn't even ''finished'' with his whole plan, yet!]] All this while hiding behind your BigFun, FatIdiot persona and to get revenge for [[spoiler: not just their breach of SacredHospitality, but some deaths of your own family members and liege lord]]? It's hard to know whether to throw up, wince at what's coming, stand up and applaud... or all of them at once.

* In the YaoiGenre series ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'', [[TheBeautifulElite Iason]] [[DefrostingIceKing Mink]] has taken the slum mongrel [[WrongSideOfTheTracks Riki]] as a [[SexSlave Pet]] to the [[SickAndWrong horror and embarrassment]] of the entire Elite class. Rather than attempting to hide the OpenSecret of sleeping with Riki, he boldly shows the other Elites a peek of their relationship by giving Riki of drink of water via mouth to mouth.

** ''Literature/GuardsGuards!''. Four Night Watch members get a long way into the Shades, a district of Ankh-Morpork so dangerous that ''assassins'' are afraid of going in, and avoid death by being loudly drunk, confusing the criminals tailing them. They later arrest someone for committing murder with a blunt instrument. Said blunt instrument was a forty-foot dragon. In fact, the dragon is also arrested.

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* In the urban fantasy ''Literature/RedRoom'' series, Talbot decides the best way to sneak past the advanced sensors of an enemy is to use a '''magic carpet.''' He wants to play Steppenwolf's song about such while doing so. Made Doubly-Funny as the book had been largely serious until this.
* ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]'' makes kind of a habit of this.
** ''Wraith Squadron'': Their very second action as a squadron, even before being commissioned, comes after blundering into an EMP minefield that disables their fighters, followed by an ambush by the minelayer corvette. Naturally, [[HighSpeedHijack they steal it]] and [[TheInfiltration report to its fleet commander as though nothing had happened]].
** ''Solo Command'': The entire "Millennium Falsehood" ploy. Basically, using a fake ''Millennium Falcon'', the squad makes it appear that General Solo is pulling these sorts of stunts, personally flying in to [[TheRival Warlord Zsinj's]] worlds to rally the population to the New Republic.
** ''[[Literature/NewJediOrder Rebel Dream]]'': The Wraiths infiltrate occupied Coruscant--[[ItsRainingMen disguised as falling space debris]]. It works brilliantly.
** ''Mercy Kill'': The main plot involves hunting for a treasonous general who has come into possession of a technique that will completely change his identity, to the extent that not even biometrics or DNA testing could reveal his old self. The only downside is that it takes several months to perform in full. At the climax of the book, running low on other options, team leader Piggy banks ''everything'' on the belief that the general has ''already gone through the procedure'' and is using a disguise to "pretend" to be his old self, ending in the general being arrested for (among other things) his own murder!
* In ''Literature/{{Shatterpoint}},'' Mace Windu reveals that he has a hostage to force [[spoiler: Depa Billaba to leave Haruun Kal with him]]. [[SarcasticDevotee Nick Rostu]] asks if Jedi ''can'' take hostages. As it turns out, there is one hostage that a Jedi can lawfully take: [[spoiler: ''himself.'']]
* ''Literature/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy:'' One of George Smiley's accomplices is sneaking about in a part of Headquarters that he shouldn't really be in. He comes across a door which slams closed on a spring, and remembers Smiley saying "If you have to make a noise, make a loud one." So our man lets the door slam really hard, as if he had every right to be there. No one investigates.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'':
** When Dalinar decides to [[spoiler: [[BondCreatures bond a spren]] and become a [[MagicKnight Radiant]]]], he doesn't go for any typical small fry--[[spoiler: he bonds the ''freaking Stormfather himself'']]. That's roughly the equivalent of asking Jesus to personally officiate your wedding.
** When he does want to get married later, he asks [[spoiler: the Stormfather to officiate his wedding]], since nobody else will.
* In Creator/DavidDrake's ''Literature/{{RCN}}'' series, while Daniel's very real skill as a spacer and Adele's intelligence-gathering abilities are major factors, many of their's plans work in no small part because the sheer balls required means nobody on the other side is ready for them. This is {{lampshaded}} by Daniel a couple of times in a manner reflective of Admiral Lord Nelson's quotation that "No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy."
-->'''Daniel:''' Every Alliance spacer ... knows that no matter how many ships they have, they've always got to expect us to go for their throats. Deep in their hearts, they're afraid and they know we aren't. [[PatrioticFervor We're the RCN.]]
** Early in ''When the Tide Rises'', Daniel is sent to report to an admiral who's in a losing battle to save a subject world from being overrun by the Alliance. Upon arriving in ''Princess Cecile'', he sees part of the RCN group trapped by part of the Alliance group, and immediately attacks the Alliance ships. The Alliance ships bug out because they know an ''Alliance'' corvette wouldn't dare attack three sloops unless it was the vanguard of a much larger force... exactly as Daniel thought they would.
** Later in the same book, Daniel mounts a commerce raid [[spoiler:on the home star system of the Alliance of Free Stars]], relying in part on the notion that because no one would expect anyone to attack the star system with just an antiquated light cruiser and a corvette, there wouldn't be prepared plans available to handle such a situation.
* In ''Literature/TheWellOfMoments'' Jasmine texts someone in the middle of talking to her competitor Maxwell. Pissing him off is just a bonus; she's really laying down a ploy that will use him as an UnwittingPawn to get the Well away from its current owner. When he asks, she tells him who she's texting because she knows he won't believe the answer and will think she's being more flippant than she already is.
* Invoked in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. The narrator comments that humans have a hard time with ''very'' outrageous things, saying that, for example, if a waiter gets your order wrong, you might easily correct him, but if the waiter bit your nose, it would be so shocking you wouldn't know what to say.
* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'':
** Skitter's success as a villain comes largely from her recklessness and ability to go on the offensive and catch enemies by surprise, enabling her and her team to succeed despite their weaker powers. One notable occasion sees her team gatecrash a soiree at the hero headquarters and disable them with their own containment foam sprays before they can react.
** Skitter develops such a reputation for this that when she's finally caught, surrounded by elite heroes with no costume, no weapons, and with her powers suppressed, she realises they are still acting wary. What does she do next? She smiles. [[spoiler:Then she calls out the heroes for their dubious actions, calls sympathetic citizens from the watching crowd to surround her, and marches out of the building.]]
* ''Literature/CaptivePrince'': What to do when you're hiding from enemy soldiers and your cart gets stuck? Call the soldiers over, get them to unstick your cart for you, and fast-talk your way into traveling with them for a day, if you're Laurent the [[KingIncognito Prince Incognito]].
* ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'':
** When Darren and Evra have to go out in public, they need to come up with a convincing disguise to hide Evra's snake boy face. Besides a hat and sunglasses, Darren opts for a fake beard. It looks completely fake but covers the face so well, onlookers just assume Evra's wearing a silly costume.
** Darren successfully shoplifts while running from the law by going up to the counter and asking a couple of questions to make himself look less suspicious. He also walks in while dirty, with ripped clothes and broken handcuffs on his arms - acting as though he's a teenager going through a goth phase.
** The Vampaneze Lord is successfully decoyed by disguising him as a servant whenever they're out in the open. The vampires pay him no notice, as they're not expecting the servant to be important.
* ''Literature/MaryBloodyMary'' - Princess Mary uses this to spy on a trio of court ladies gossiping about UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn. She favors plain dresses with few ornaments, and so the ladies assume she's just a servant and pay no attention to her.
* While he is traveling to Upper Silesia, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheOutlaws'' meets a group of forest academy students, led by their teachers as officers, who also plan to join the fight. They board the train with weapons hidden in their luggage and when asked by the train crew what is inside, they claim that they are carrying measure instruments to be used in the Silesian forests.
* ''Literature/SamTheCatDetective'': In the final book, Sam mails a letter revealing the culprit to the police and the newspapers and signs it "Sam the Cat Detective," knowing that only cats watching the news will realize it really was sent by a cat.
* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' #16, "The Warning", the team needs to infiltrate a crowded office building containing both Controllers and innocents and is in need of a distraction. They achieve this by having Rachel and Jake morph into their preferred battle morphs, grizzly bear and Siberian tiger respectively, burst out of a supply closet, and...Rachel starts mopping the floor while Jake holds the bucket in his teeth and [[ShapeshifterModeLock Tobias]] flies around them making loud noises to clear a path for them. This proves to be such a mindblowingly unbelievable sight that when one of the office workers asks another if they're really seeing that and follows up by asking if they're going crazy, the second one's response is that the bear's the crazy one [[ComicallyMissingThePoint because that floor is carpeted.]]
* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': While both sides of UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars are trying to sway the neutral Inca Empire to their side, Napoleon interrupts negotiations by swooping in on a dragon and introducing himself to the Incan ruler in person, saying he could not expose his ambassadors to any danger he [[FrontLineGeneral would not suffer himself]]. [[spoiler:The Sapa Inca joins his side and marries him.]]
* ''Literature/TwentySixSixtySix'': Klaus practically runs on this after [[spoiler: he's thrown in prison. He even has a cell phone, which he uses to contact the outside world whenever he wants.]] ''Everyone'' knows and goes along with it.
* One of the stories in ''Literature/RWBYFairyTalesOfRemnant'' is "The Man Who Stared at the Sun", which tells of a StaringContest between the Farmer and the Sun. [[spoiler:The Sun is amazed to lose the contest since humans can't stare at them for more than a few seconds and demands to know how the farmer achieved it. The farmer reveals that he was blinded within seconds of looking directly at the sun. Since the damage was already done, he decided to keep his eyes wide open and fake it. The sun is angry to have been tricked, but honours the result because of how much the farmer has sacrificed to win]].

* ''Literature/UnderHeaven'': As later in-universe historians point out, first minister Wen Zhou ordering the army of Xu Bihai to march out of the safety of the impregnable Teng Pass fortresses to engage Roshan's forces (which, as has been pointed out earlier by the general, was already crumbling with the strain of maintaining the siege) in open battle was probably an unwise thing to do. Funnily enough, Roshan's forces are so blindsided by the stupidity of Xu's attack that Xu almost managed to win the battle from sheer Refuge in Audacity — unfortunately, that was not enough, the battle was lost and the capital was lost to the rebels by the end of the week. The incident was based on the real life Battle of Tongguan.

* From ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', Malfoy tries to tattle on Harry and Hermione for smuggling a dragon through Hogwarts. The idea is so ridiculous that [=McGonagall=] flat out disbelieves him. [[DownplayedTrope They still get caught out of bed, though]].
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', a Potions lesson has Slughorn presenting a mystery poison to the class and the students must concoct an antidote based on the contents of the potion. Harry, who has been receiving help from the Prince's annotations, realizes there's no real foolproof cheat around this (as Hermione also gleefully remarks on), so he grabs a [[BrickJoke bezoar]] from the cabinet and presents that as his antidote. Slughorn rewards him 10 points for "sheer cheek." None of his classmates are amused ([[spoiler:though grateful that he later managed to save Ron from poisoning with it]]).[[note]]One of the annotations does say "Just shove a bezoar down their throat.", and Harry went with it. Slughorn does point out it isn't a ''perfect'' solution, and knowing how to make antidotes is still a good idea. Even Snape, who was the previous potions teacher, would agree....[[/note]]
** Ug the Unreliable, [[AllThereInTheManual a notorious goblin con-artist]], pulled this in his most famous con. He set up a Demiguise Derby (keep in mind that the Demiguise is an animal whose hair is used to make ''{{Invisibility}} Cloaks'') and got away with a ton of gold.
** Gilderoy Lockhart is entirely incompetent at magic, the only thing he's good at is [[spoiler:modifying the memories of more heroic witches and wizards so he can take credit for their deeds]]. You'd think he'd try to avoid detection, but instead his every other sentence concerns how much better he can do things or how awesome he is. At the end of the year, ''Snape'' leads the teachers into getting rid of him by [[UriahGambit sending Lockhart to do battle with Slytherin's monster.]]
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', [[SadistTeacher Dolores Umbridge]] zigzags the trope somewhat. She gets away with torturing students and sacking teachers as she pleases because of the authority the Ministry of Magic has granted her, but keeps the worst of it out of their earshot ("What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him"). That said, she displays it early as the beginning of the book during Harry's trial, laughing off Dumbledore's suggestion that someone in the Ministry intentionally sent the Dementors to attack Harry as ridiculous, [[spoiler:which is exactly what happened, and ''she'' was the one who ordered it.]]
** Also in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', we have James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew discussing about Lupin's werewolf condition... in daylight... in the middle of Hogwarts' fields... surrounded by dozens of students... in a world where werewolfs are dreaded and hated...
* OlderThanFeudalism example in ''Literature/TheBible'': In Habakkuk 1:5 "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing such a thing in your days that you would not believe even I if told you."
** In [[Literature/TheFourGospels Luke 16:1-8]], Jesus tells a parable of a steward who is accused of wasting his master's goods. Just as he is about to be sent away, he talks things over with the debtors, one of them owing 100 measures of oil, and urges him to write down 50 on his bill. He assists another debtor who owes 100 measures of wheat, urging him to write down 80 on his bill. Afterwards, the master commends the steward for his shrewd thinking in reducing the debtors' bills, taking steps to make amends for his misdeeds.

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': Miles Vorkosigan is completely unafraid to ''run'' with this, as part of his GuileHero approach to pretty much everything:
** In ''Literature/TheVorGame'', he has to get back a hostage from the villain before she kills the hostage. At the appointed meeting place, he and his men burst in, guns drawn, and threaten to shoot the hostage if she doesn't give in to Miles's demands. The villain has no idea what to do when faced with the very threat she was about to make, and so Miles gains the upper hand.
*** Gregor (the hostage) doesn't do so badly himself: saying, "No, he's bluffing. Watch!" and then walking right up to the muzzle of a plasma cannon held by one of Miles's people, allowing Miles to slam the blast doors behind him.
*** Miles's speech to Cavilo right before also counts--Elena's reaction: "did you in fact just connive to assassinate Gregor in one breath, offer to cuckold him in the next, accuse your father of homosexuality, suggest a patricidal plot against him, and league yourself with Cavilo?"
** In ''Literature/TheWarriorsApprentice'' Miles takes control of a mercenary fleet on the pretext that he is part of a super secret elite mercenary outfit. Specifically, he captures a small vessel and offers the crew membership in his fictional mercenary outfit. He then uses that vessel as additional proof of the existence of said mercenary outfit. Before long, he's created a super secret elite mercenary outfit, composed entirely of people thinking they were joining an existing super secret mercenary outfit.
** In ''Literature/{{Memory}}'', Miles dons all his medals before going to ask the Emperor of Barrayar for a favor -- including his Cetagandan Order of Merit. The Barrayaran Empire has been at war with the Cetagandans three times by this point, has come close to a fourth (in the Hegen Hub) and has actively worked against them in their conquest of another planet (the Dagoola IV operation). Emperor Gregor's reaction? "Good god, Miles. I've never before seen you come the Vor Lord ''with intent''."
** In ''Literature/CaptainVorpatrilsAlliance'', the Cordonahs [[spoiler:asking for 10% of the profits of a cache of stolen property below [=ImpSec=] Headquarters as a finders fee, while on trial for (among much else) ''sinking'' [=ImpSec=] Headquarters. Bonus points get awarded for them knowing of the cache in question only because [[CoolOldLady Grandmama ghem Estif]] helped stash the loot.]]
** In ''Literature/BrothersInArms'' Miles also gets [[spoiler:his real clone brother Mark to pretend to be a different, non-existent, clone brother to fool some Cetagandans]].
* Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/{{Matilda}}'' explicitly states that the [[SadistTeacher monstrous headmistress]] Agatha Trunchbull would not get away with being cruel and abusive anywhere else, but she gets away with using a girl for human hammer throwing, flinging kids out of windows and locking them in a torture device because [[CassandraTruth no parent would believe]] a child trying to tell on her. Dahl knew his stuff--his intended audience (elementary-school kids) were perfectly capable of buying that explanation. This is also TruthInTelevision: Trunchbull was based on Dahl's personal abuse in the British school system. A full account can be read in "Boy" -- St. Peter's was not a happy place and the matron was an inventive taskmaster.
-->"Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable."
* In David Gemmel's "Legend". Staring down an impossibly massive horde of Mongel expys who hold his castle under siege, with most of their walls having already fallen, no sign of help on the horizon, only a few hundred troops and their most powerful warrior dead, Rek could have surrendered or fled with honor. In fact, he had already given his troops that option. So, what does he do? Flee? Surrender? Never. He kits himself out in full battle rattle and invites his officers to ''dinner''... inside the enemy camp... where they will give Druss a magnificent sendoff worth of a hero. Not only does it WORK, but Rek spends the night talking to their leader, Ulrik, about their respective visions for the future and their pasts.
* Francis Crawford of Lymond does this all the time in Dorothy Dunnett's ''Literature/LymondChronicles''. One of his better moments is chasing away an English army by dressing several thousand Scottish sheep in metal helmets on a foggy day. The English see the reflections from the helmets and assume the Scottish have a bigger army, even though there's only a few Scottish soldiers. He also pulls off a lot of disguises because they're so outrageous that no one would guess they're him, including [[spoiler:a tearful Scottish whore, a flamboyant Spanish nobleman, a drunken Irish bard, and a French falsetto singer.]]

--->Carrot brushed the dust off his hands and smiled at everyone. The trolls looked puzzled. In theory, Carrot was just a thin film of grease on the street, but somehow it didn't seem to be happening...
--->'''Angua''': "He just called a hundred trolls 'good chaps.' Some of them are just down off the mountains! Some of them have still got ''lichen'' on them!"
--->'''Nobby''': "Funny, that. If ''we'' was to try it, we'd be little bits of mince. But it seems to work for him."

---> '''Vetinari:''' What would you do if I asked you an outright question, Vimes?
---> '''Vimes:''' I'd tell you a downright lie, sir.

* In ''Literature/BlackLegion'', this is the selling point of the plan to attack Harmony--after all, who would believe that less than two hundred warriors, vast majority of which are mindless, soulless undead, would attack Emperor's Children's second most fortified stronghold?
* Creator/PGWodehouse's popular character Literature/{{Psmith}}. Psmith becomes a socialist because he believes in the redistribution of property--his particular ''brand'' of socialism involves his redistributing other's property to himself. When he seeks employment, he offers to provide any service, including assassinating someone's aunt.
* In one book in the ''Literature/CodexAlera'' series,
** Tavi (a captain in the Legion at the time) disobeys a direct order given by a commanding officer who would love to have an excuse to have Tavi removed from command, breaks into the strongest prison in the country to free the a leader of the enemy Canim, and brokers a truce with them, again against orders. How does he get out of it? He proposes to the First Lord ([[spoiler: his grandfather]]) an amnesty for his former countrymen who served the Canim in certain unusual circumstances, but it's phrased in such a way that it would apply to himself as well.
** Later, he has to deal with the Icemen, a race of telepathic yetis living in the lands north of Alera. They've been at war with Alera for hundreds of years and constantly attempt to get control of the Shieldwall, a massive fortress stretching across the border which was created to keep them out. Tavi does ''not'' need this distracting him, since [[spoiler:the HordeOfAlienLocusts have eaten half the continent]]. His solution? [[spoiler:''give'' the Icemen the Shieldwall, then rent it back from them.]]
** Stopping Ambassador Varg from visiting Gaius Sextus was a textbook example. How do you stop an 8-foot tall, 700-year-old wolfman from kicking your eldritch-deprived ass? Pull a knife on ''him''.
** In the finale, (in the heat of combat), Kitai finds him by assuming that he's going to be in the most dangerous place she can imagine, doing the most foolish thing possible. She follows him because she also assumes it's going to work.
* ''Literature/ForgottenRealms''
** In ''[[Literature/ForgottenRealms Silverfall]]'' lady Qilue attends a Nobel's costume party, without an invitation, for the purposes of spying on the attendees. She can't disguise herself with magic, so instead arrives [[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself as herself]] wearing a [[{{Stripperiffic}} very revealing]] dress. The only person who notices she's a real drow is a high-ranked Harper spy, and he almost fell for her anyway.
** Liriel Baenre walks openly through Waterdeep simply by joining a host of masquerading nobles and relying on being viewed as yet another decadent reveler [[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself glamoured to look like a Drow]].
** Tzigone from ''Literature/CounselorsAndKings'' was accosted by one of the members of a [[EmpoweredBadassNormal martial order]] ''while wearing stolen clothes and medallion'' of said order for behavior inappropriate to a member of the order? She took offense, loudly, at being mistaken for one of them in the first place and got away with it.
** Lauzoril, Zulkir of Enchantment--the only high-ranked Red Wizard who ''didn't'' try to hide from the scrying of [[TheDreaded their scourge The Simbul]], later faced her, made his own separate peace, all the while praising the trade rivalry it brings them. All this after waging war on her land and her agents for years and sending assassins after her sister--which is more than most Red Wizards she slain could claim.
* In Creator/DavidWeber's ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' series,
** Cayleb Ahrmahk is fond of using this to his advantage, such as chasing down an enemy fleet of ships in what should have been near impossible conditions purely for the added shock value their arrival would cause.
** ''A Mighty Fortress,'' has Madame Ahnzhelyk Phonda. Besides running a long standing spy network right under the nose of a CorruptChurch and its paranoid Grand Inquisitor there is her solution for smuggling more than two hundred potential Inquisition victims to safety: hide them in ships whose paperwork claims they're shipping items for that very same paranoid Grand Inquisitor to guarantee no one would ''dare'' examine things too closely. Cayleb is described as being "almost reverent" when he finds out about it.
* In the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Flight of the Old Dog'', the heroes, running out of fuel for their CoolPlane, land at a semi-abandoned Soviet airbase to get fuel. They do something similar in ''Plan of Attack''.

** In ''Literature/{{Changes}}'', [[spoiler: Dresden gets assassinated.]] Well, it was bound to happen eventually. Then along comes ''Literature/GhostStory'', and it turns out [[spoiler: he engineered his own assassination and wiped his memory of it,]] because nobody -- even himself -- would believe that even ''he'' would be so bold. It almost works, too.

* In ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'', a suspect is spotted spying on 221B Baker Street from a cab. Holmes and Watson unsuccessfully attempt to intercept it, then track down the cabdriver the next day to ask about his passenger. The cabman informs them that the rider had claimed to be a detective... and had gone by the name of "Franchise/SherlockHolmes". Recognizing this trope at its finest, the real Holmes bursts out laughing when he hears this, and never does correct the cabman as to his own identity.
** Later in the ''Charles Augustus Milverton'' story, when Lestrade is looking for the two (ultimately innocent) suspects of murdering the title character, Sherlock Holmes points out to Lestrade that the description of one of the suspects may fit that of John Watson. They laugh it off, without Lestrade ever realizing that Holmes and Watson are actually those two suspects.
* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's, ''[[Literature/ProsperosDaughter Prospero Lost]]'', Astreus persuades Miranda to dance with him after he had publically insulted her by pointing out that if they dance, everyone will assume that she had rebuffed him, and be eager to dance with her to hear about the reconciliation. She points out that they didn't reconcile; he points out she doesn't have to tell them that.
* Invoked in Neal Stephenson's ''Literature/{{Zodiac|1988}}'', when Sangamon notes that Gomez would never believe him if he said that Alkali Lane's pH of 13 is a hundred thousand times higher than is legal. So he tells Gomez it's "more than twice the legal limit", which is both technically true and credible.
* Lots of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novels:
** Creator/SandyMitchell's ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' novels.
*** At the beginning of ''For The Emperor'' Cain, THE HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, deliberately invokes this trope when confronted by a mess hall of rioting Guardsmen by leaping up onto a table, pointing at someone, and ordering them to get a mop. The bloodstains were ''deplorable.''
*** In ''Echoes of the Tomb'', he runs into a portal to parts unknown because he believes possible death at the hands of whatever's on the other side is preferable to certain death due to the Necrons before him.
*** ''The Traitor's Hand'' proved this tactic only works for protagonists. When Cain is attacked by a horde of half-naked cultists who fight over who gets to die at his hands first and giggle as he cuts their limbs off, he notes the sheer insanity of it all as he continues to mow them down without pause.
** In Lee Lightner's Literature/SpaceWolf novel ''Wolf's Honour'', Ragnor realizes, fighting with Madox, that Madox will unquestionably wear him down with minor wounds that add up to mortally injured. So when Madox strikes at him, he [[spoiler:doesn't defend himself. In fact, he drives the sword deeper in, and Madox can't pull it out and so can't parry when Ragnor strikes with the Spear of Russ.]]
** In Creator/JamesSwallow's novel ''[[Literature/BloodAngels Deus Encarmine]]'', the Blood Angels are reduced to a small fraction of their number, facing a LastStand, and on the verge of despair. Arkio proposes that they sneak into the port they had to abandon and turn its guns, not on the forces facing them, but on their spaceship.
* [[CoolOldLady Lady Cecilia]] from Creator/ElizabethMoon's ''Literature/HerisSerranoTrilogy''. An old lady who owns a space yacht called ''Sweet Delight'', decides to impersonate a military officer. She does this by declaring herself to be a high-ranking agent on a mission too secret for the rank-and-file crew to know about, and responding to any requests for proof with a DeathGlare and vaguely-worded threat. It's so outrageous that everyone assumes there's ''no way'' she could be just making it up. This is a deconstructed example because the captain and most of the crew of Lady Cecelia's yacht ''really were'' military personnel undercover on a top-secret mission... even if they all ''thought'' they'd been discharged.
* In ''Plan B'', a book from the Literature/LiadenUniverse, the clan motto of Clan Korval is "I Dare." This story features our heroes planning to steal aircraft from the ''invading army''. In the process they reference this trope:
-->It was a plan somewhat short on detail, but Nelirikk never doubted it would succeed. It was much too audacious to fail.
* Ken Follett's ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth'': [[spoiler:Bishop-to-be Waleran getting Prior Philip]] to pledge support for his nomination when the current Bishop died, then casually announcing the death of the then-Bishop. [[spoiler:Among Philip's]] reasons for never reporting this to anyone is that noone would believe a man of God would do something like that.
* In ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', Zhuge Liang was forced to defend Xicheng with 5000 troops, half of which had to be reassigned to help evacuate all of the goods from Xicheng. When a giant Wei army appears, there was no refuge left ''but'' audacity: he appeared over top of the open city gates playing an instrument, flanked by boys holding burning incense, while soldiers dressed as peasants opened all the gates of the city wide open and started sweeping them out. Wei army commander Sima Yi orders a retreat. Sima's sons were convinced that it was a bluff, but Sima himself thought (from previous encounters) that Zhuge didn't take risks, and that there must be some deep strategem behind this display. To Sima's credit, Zhuge comments afterwards about how much he hated having to take a risk in this instance, but it simply couldn't be helped.
* In Creator/GKChesterton's ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'', when Syme reveals to Gregory in the anarchist stronghold, that Syme is a policeman, this inspires Gregory to give a speech emphasizing the humanity of their motives. Syme, taking RefugeInAudacity (and trusting [[IGaveMyWord Gregory's word]]), leaps up to give a fire-breathing speech and win the post they were holding an election for, to [[TheInfiltration infiltrate the society]].

* Invoked in ''Literature/TomorrowWhenTheWarBegan'', in Ellie's plan to get Lee, who can't walk thanks to a gunshot wound to the leg, out of enemy-occupied Wirrawee. "Maybe we're going about this the wrong way. We're thinking of little, quiet, sneaky things. We could go to the other extreme, rock up in something so indestructable that we didn't give a damn who saw or heard us." They proceed to steal an excavator and escape hiding Lee in the shovel, hitting several cars and killing a few enemy soldiers on the way.
* In the world of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', every last move of every businessman is followed by a ShadowDictator, so how could one of the most successful businessmen destroy his multinational enterprise? Become the most worthless playboy and invest millions of dollars in a project he admitted knowing was worthless and publicly announcing that he would enjoy watching the farce unroll.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Tyrion Lannister's list of "crimes" he admits to while imprisoned at the Eyrie. At another time he outright threatens to kill one of the king's bodyguards, in the middle of court, ''in front of the king'', and gets away with it. [[spoiler:This backfires badly on him when he is accused of killing Joffrey. Everything he said and did in King's Landing that he got away with earlier, is thrown back at him in a big hoop, taken out of context.]]
** Tyrion's brother uses this trope as well. Upon returning to King's Landing in the third book, his first act is to walk right into ''the holiest cathedral in the land'', where the corpse of [[spoiler:the King (and his own child-by-incest)]] is lying, and send all the priests away so he can have some ''alone time'' with his sister ''right there''. She's menstruating at the time too, just to add to it.
** Lord Wyman Manderly, you sneaky, dramatically ''dark'' [[GuileHero Guile Anti-Hero]], you. Where to start? Two words: [[spoiler: [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies Frey Pie.]]]] Taking time to plot revenge against an entire family is pretty usual in this series. Killing people under the radar? Standard practice if you've got half a synapse working. [[spoiler: Killing three of [[HateSink that family]] undetected and totally to the letter of unwritten social convention, baking them in massive pies, preceding to offer them as a "gift", along with other provisions, at a wedding feast (so, technically, you haven't even [[SacredHospitality accepted their salt]]--just to be sure), while requesting a folk-song commemorating [[Theatre/TitusAndronicus a very similar revenge-plot]] as you watch your other, future targets chow down while you're busily ploughing through massive portions yourself, not ''just'' so they'll eat up unsuspecting? Audacious, bro! And, he hasn't even ''finished'' with his whole plan, yet!]] All this while hiding behind your BigFun, FatIdiot persona and to get revenge for [[spoiler: not just their breach of SacredHospitality, but some deaths of your own family members and liege lord]]? It's hard to know whether to throw up, wince at what's coming, stand up and applaud... or all of them at once.
* ''Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas'': ''"The only hope now, I felt, was the possibility that we’d gone to such excess, with our gig, that nobody in a position to bring the hammer down on us could possibly believe it."'' This was Creator/HunterSThompson's stylistic signature, and appears in most of his works to some degree. Memorably in his coverage of the '74 presidential campaign he devotes a solid half page to his desire to mace and cattle prod the first available politician while running them nude down main street with a bell around their neck.

* In ''[[Literature/IClaudius Claudius The God]]'', Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, uses audicity to defend himself in his schemes, such as relating stories about his (mis)adventures to Claudius' mother, Antonia who, being a prim and proper Roman matron, is "[[BileFascination shocked]]" by his tales.
* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind''

* ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'':
** The RealLife ''coup de théâtre'' that Cardinal Mazarini pulled off as part of the settlement of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Mantuan_Succession War of the Mantuan Succession]], riding between two warring parties waving a blank piece of paper and saying it was the formal settlement document for the war to buy time for the real thing to be finished, is referenced in the novella ''Between the Armies'' and in ''1634: The Galileo Affair''.
** Later, in ''The Kremlin Games'', Tsar Mikhail I, the Tsarina, and the Protagonists, need to get into a certain city. Trouble is, they don't know whether or not the garrison sides with the [[PuppetKing Tsar]], or the Duma in the power struggle the former inadvertently sparked. So what do they do? [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments ...have the Tsar and the Tsarina sit out in the open on their barge, waving to the soldiers and the civilians like it's a parade, all while the protagonists sneak in through the back.]]
* In the YaoiGenre series ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'', [[TheBeautifulElite Iason]] [[DefrostingIceKing Mink]] has taken the slum mongrel [[WrongSideOfTheTracks Riki]] as a [[SexSlave Pet]] to the [[SickAndWrong horror and embarrassment]] of the entire Elite class. Rather than attempting to hide the OpenSecret of sleeping with Riki, he boldly shows the other Elites a peek of their relationship by giving Riki of drink of water via mouth to mouth.
* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
** In ''On Basilisk Station'', Literature/HonorHarrington disables a ship by charging through its drive safety radius in order to blow out its impeller ring. When the captain of said ship coms her to complain, she apologizes, claiming: "[[BlatantLies I'm afraid I wasn't watching where I was going.]]"
** In the epilogue, the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Haven]] ship supporting the local insurrection was destroyed. Haven tried Honor in absentia for killing off a ''civilian freighter'' and crew. It was even {{lampshaded}} that the reason the Havenite people would believe that is because it would simply be too big of a lie to be taken as a falsehood.
* In ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo]]'', after Blomkvist realizes that Salander hacked his computer, he decides to recruit her to help him investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. Rather than recruit her through her employer (who is highly protective of her) Blomkvist decides to just barge in on her apartment one morning, carrying bagels and coffee (for increased audacity, the American version of the movie has him showing up while she's still in bed with her girlfriend.) Having been completely blindsided, and confronted with the fact that one of the victims of her hacking ''knew'' that she'd hacked him, she agrees to work with him. Surprisingly, the two of them end up hitting it off.
* During ''Literature/{{Murderess}}''’ RescueArc, Lu, stuck in the Dark Ones’ tunnels with little hope of escape, [[spoiler:after Hallwad [[LeeroyJenkins charged at the Dark Ones]] [[RevengeBeforeReason in blind fury]] for [[BigBrotherInstinct torture his sister Aucasis]]]], [[spoiler:sits on their royal throne in the main hall,]] tells them exactly who she is, and outright lies to them [[spoiler:that she came to renew the Killer’s ancient pact with them]]. They don’t buy it, [[spoiler:but it gives her enough time to rescue both Hallwad and Aucasis.]]
* Kelsier in ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' used to be the most famous thief in the Final Empire. Once his wife was murdered by the Lord Ruler, he set his sights a bit higher, contracting with the rebellion to steal the Final Empire's capital and sell it to them. And even that is small-scale compared to his ''real'' plan: [[spoiler: start a new religion around himself, die, return from the dead (which he'd already done once), and thus trigger a mass rebellion against the Lord Ruler.]]

* ''Literature/HoratioHornblower'': In ''Atropos'', Hornblower scares away the much bigger and better-armed ''Castilla'' by sailing towards it while signaling to a non-existent British squadron for backup. And it works.
* In ''Literature/AWolfInTheSoul'', after Greg breaks another student's arm, Aram helps him escape campus police by giving him a ridiculously conspicuous hat. After all, the police will be looking for someone skulking around trying to hide, not somebody walking proudly down the street wearing garish clothes.
* A somewhat understated version is found in {{Creator/Jodi Picoult}}'s novel ''Perfect Match.'' After a [[PedophilePriest priest]] is accused of molesting the protagonist's five-year-old son, she walks into the middle of the courtroom and shoots him in the head four times. Afterwards, she pleads insanity, her defense essentially being "I'd have to be crazy to kill someone in a courtroom."
* In ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'', Gus' speech to Monica's mom after [[spoiler:she catches him, Hazel, and Isaac egging Monica's car, which actually succeeds in getting her to leave them alone to finish their vandalism]].
-->[[spoiler:'''Gus''': Ma'am, your daughter's car has just been deservedly egged by a blind man. Please close the door and go back inside or we'll be forced to call the police.]]