History Main / NoHonorAmongThieves

In short, this is ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, or even just chronic lack of trust, applied as a persistent AchillesHeel of the bad guys. Subtrope of EvilWillFail. Often results in an EnemyCivilWar or EvilVersusEvil. Compare with TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong and EvilCannotComprehendGood. The opposite is EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily and of course, HonorAmongThieves. Could be considered a form of [[PVPBalanced PVP Balance]], to make up for the fact that the heroes [[WhatTheHellHero aren't allowed]] to cross the MoralEventHorizon to prevent TooBleakStoppedCaring.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'': Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show had one episode titled "No Honor Among Thieves". In that episode, ComicBook/LexLuthor created a device to steal powers from the heroes and asked for {{ComicBook/Darkseid}}'s help. Luthor tried to doublecross Darkseid but Darkseid was CrazyPrepared enough to cover Luthor in kryptonite dust since, with {{Superman}}'s powers, [[AssimilationBackfire comes his weakness]]. Luthor still managed to use El Dorado's powers to send the powerless heroes the means to escape death. He then got a TitleDrop.

Evil has a lot of things going for it. [[EvilFeelsGood It feels great]], [[EvilTastesGood it tastes great]], [[VillainousFashionSense it has style]], and [[EvilIsCool it's just plain cool.]] For most of a given story, evil can probably be expected to give the heroes a very rough time, and if the EvilOverlord and his {{Mooks}} are competent enough, they will come [[NearVillainVictory alarmingly close to victory]] before the end of the story.

You see, [[TrueCompanions one of the keys for a team to really work well together]] is that there has to be at least some level of mutual trust among them. People on the same side need to know their friends will be there to [[BigDamnHeroes bail them out in a tight spot]], and [[FaceHeelTurn won't sell them out to the enemy or abandon them for some selfish gain at a bad moment]]. They need to know that, when the going gets tough, or when some temptation arises, their allies will still be right by their side, through thick and thin. For the most part, such willingness to put the group before oneself is inherently at odds with the whole idea of being a Bad Guy.

And so we have this trope. While the heroes cling to the PowerOfFriendship and trust in their TrueCompanions to see them through, the villains simply cannot trust one another. Always, even when their victory seems closest, it seems to come undone because the bad guys are inherently treacherous and suspicious of one another. If the EvilOverlord is near to victory, you can expect TheDragon to make some [[TheStarscream bid for personal power]] at the last minute that gives the heroes enough breathing room to gain the victory. And if you have a team of more or less equal [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villains]] in it ForTheEvulz, expect them to fall prey to this in no time at all, with their momentary shared goals falling by the wayside the second any of them sees an advantage in turning on their old 'friends.' This is the reason why trust and willingness to work with each other is one of the EvilVirtues. Whenever the heroes' RoguesGallery form [[VillainTeamup an alliance]], there is a good chance that is trope will happen.

* During the {{Enron}} hearings, after years of corporate fraud was discovered, both Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, tried to put all of the blame on their third partner in crime, Andrew Fastow, who himself was putting a lot of money aside and was planning on abandoning Enron. He instead pleaded guilty to a lesser sentence in exchange for testifying against both Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' this is pretty-much a staple of drow society, whether you're a thief, mercenary, ruler... basically anything. It's hard to find a drow who ''hasn't'' double-crossed an ally in order to get ahead. (In their society, a drow who isn't good at this is just going to be killed by someone who is. Their goddess actually encourages it.)

* In one episode of ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'' the criminal community (i.e. all) of Camden turn on Earl when he reports the theft of a car to the police, calling him a snitch. However when one of the criminals gets picked up on Earl's info they in turn accuse another member of their community who has committed a more serious crime in order to get immunity for themselves. Earl makes sure he is standing outside the police station as they get released to let them know he knows that they too have "snitched", and that all their bragging of thieves hanging together is just that, empty bragging as there really is No Honour Among Thieves.
** Earl reported the theft because it was his car and the thieves did not want to give it back. In the old days the thieves would have returned it to him as a courtesy to a fellow thief. However, since Earl has gone straight, they felt that he was no longer covered by that Honour Among Thieves tradition. The cherry on top is that Earl figured out ''all'' the thieves giving him grief were snitching themselves because he noticed they each had an item from the drawer of cheap toys the cops offered him as a reward for snitching. So he just waits outside the police station until each of them comes in to snitch again.

* This comes up quite a bit in ''Manga/OnePiece''; with so many pirates, sailors and misc. of differing moralities, how long an alliance lasts usually depends:
** A Flashback to Luffy's childhood shows the Bluejam Pirates being paid to burn a WretchedHive to the ground by the local kingdom's corrupt nobility. Once the deed was done, however, the nobles just locked the pirates out of their safe zone, leaving Bluejam and company to die.
** On Fishman Island, Hody Jones and Vander Decken team up to take over the kingdom, but Hody decides to kill Decken when it seems that doing so will destroy Luffy faster. ItMakesSenseInContext.
** The focal point of the Whole Cake Island arc is a VillainTeamUp between the Big Mom Pirates and Germa 66. What the leaders of the Germa 66 don't realize is that their "alliance" was a sham to begin with; Big Mom wants their cloning technology for herself, and the ArrangedMarriage to seal the deal is just a trap.
** There are a couple of these in the "Wano Arc" as well:
*** Played with in another VillainTeamUp between [[spoiler:Kaido and Big Mom, two of the Four Emperors]]. They decide to ally for now to take over the world, and kill each other after that's done. Since they mutually agree on this and make no secret of it, it's not much of a backstab, more of just a plan to go back to being enemies eventually.
*** An alliance that was originally formed well before this arc is revealed during Wano to be an example of this. Three captains from the Worst Generation--Basil Hawkins, Scratchmen Apoo, and Eustass Kid--decided at some point prior to this arc to [[RivalsTeamUp form an alliance together]] to take down Shanks, one of the Four Emperors. [[spoiler:Or, at least, that was the idea Kid and Hawkins had. It turns out that Apoo was actually working for Kaido since long before this time, and his alliance with Kid and Hawkins and their crews was a setup from the beginning to get them under Kaido's umbrella as well. By the time the other two learn about this, Kaido has already cornered them, so Hawkins submits to Kaido out of self-preservation, and makes no effort to help Kid and his crew when they are captured after refusing to do the same. These betrayals from both supposed "allies" have left Kid ([[{{Jerkass}} of all people]]) very bitter and jaded towards the idea of ever trusting anyone outside his crew again.]]
*** [[spoiler: During the Third Act, Kaido announces his intentions to build more factories in Wano, and to use the people of the Flower Capital as workers. When Orochi protests this plan, he gets beheaded!]]

** For that matter, most of Han's old friends sell him out by ''Literature/TheNewRebellion''. Even [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Lando]] had, though Lando had [[SadisticChoice a very good reason]] and had later doubled back to help him at great personal risk. The smuggler community actually regarded Han, and Lando to a lesser extent, as unrealistically honorable and idealistic even before they went straight.

* ''FanFic/TheWeaverOption'':

* ''Film/{{Parker}}'': Parker refuses to throw in with his partners and pool his share of the loot with them so they can pull a second job. His partners shoot him, take his share of the loot and [[leftForDead leave him for dead]].

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', Placido is so rotten he even steals from his partner Lucciano to accomplish his own - unauthorized - plan. (This takes the Trope UpToEleven and becomes far more serious when [[TheReveal it is discovered later]] that the Three Nobles of Yliaster - which Placido and Lucciano were members of - are three embodiments of one being, Aporia, meaning Placido was so full of hostility, it even extended towards himself.)

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': Dodge puts together a group of criminals with grudges against Robin to get his revenge on the hero and their mistrust and backstabbing of each other makes it clear they were doomed to failure even if Tim hadn't slipped TheMole into their group.
* In "[[ComicBook/SupergirlRebirth The Girl of No Tomorrow]]", the partnership between the Fatal Five falls apart at the time as their leader's plan, which is because Selene teleports away, abandoning her teammate Magog, when she realizes he's about to be defeated and captured.
* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'', Lesla-Lar and ComicBook/LexLuthor join forces to destroy Superman but they don't trust each other, and with good reason. Once Superman is dead, Lesla intends to dispose of Lex before ''he'' has the chance to backstab ''her''... which Lex completely intends to.

** On Fishman Island, Hody Jones and Vender Decken team up to take over the kingdom, but Hody decides to kill Decken when it seems that doing so will destroy Luffy faster. ItMakesSenseInContext.
** The focal point of the Totland arc is a VillainTeamUp between the Big Mom Pirates and Germa 66. What the leaders of the Germa 66 don't realize is that their "alliance" was a sham to begin with; Big Mom wants their cloning technology for herself, and the ArrangedMarriage to seal the deal is just a trap.

* ''Film/{{Parker}}'': Parker refuses to throw in with his partners and pool his share of the loot with them so they can pull a second job. His partners shoot him, take his share of the loot and leave him for dead.

* ''Film/Heist2001'': After the gold heist, Jimmy betrays the others to steal the gold and Fran.

* The hero in ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons'' goes to a Thieves' Guild for help and to get an artifact he needs. When the head of said guild sells him out, he incredulously asks, "What happened to honor among thieves?" Said guild leader basically laughs in his face for having such a silly idea. This is after the hero specifically tells his reluctant partner, a young female mage whose mentor was betrayed and killed by a fellow mage, that a thief would never betray another thief.

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. The Sith are ''rife'' with this problem throughout both the game itself and the backstory. Of particular note: the encouraged ChronicBackstabbingDisorder of the Sith leads to [[BigBad Malak]] attempting to kill his own master Revan, which deprives the Sith of their previous MagnificentBastard leader and starts the chain of events that finally leads to Sith defeat.
** In the sequel, the Sith Triumvirate nearly succeeds in wiping out the Jedi. Then Darth Traya's apprentices, Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus, turn on her and then on each other (this is why the Rule of Two forbids two apprentices- they could cooperate to kill their master before they were ready, then kill the other apprentice to become a Sith Lord much weaker than the former). This allows Darth Traya to [[spoiler:help the player in hunting them down]].

* WebSite/NotAlwaysLegal has [[https://notalwaysright.com/no-honor-among-thieves/137303/ a story]] about a scuffle that ensued when a group of shoplifters were caught, one of them was searched, and it turned out he'd lifted one of the other thieves' wallets. The story is even ''called'' ''No Honor Among Thieves''.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen''

-->'''[[FamousLastWords Someone... help me... Partner... Please...]]'''

** In chapter 290, Damon mentions that bandit "conventions" were once a thing, but when you get too many crooks in one place, well, RealityEnsues.

* In ''Film/MatchstickMen'', not only does [[spoiler:Frank run a MassiveMultiplayerScam against his longtime partner Roy, but Angela later reveals that he cheated her out of her cut, as well.]]

* ZizaggedTrope in ''Film/{{Brannigan}}'' which involves an American mobster Ben Larkin being kidnapped by {{London Gangster}}s, so his mob attorney Mel Fields arranges a ransom drop. [[spoiler:Fields turns up to deliver the ransom, but everyone just smirks when Larkin demands to be released. Fields takes a gun off a LondonGangster and reminds Larkin of the first words he said to him: "Never trust anyone." He then kills the gangsters instead and it's revealed that Fields and Larkin set up the whole thing between them. Then Larkin picks up the gun and it looks like he will kill Fields, while Fields in turn admits that he was tempted to betray Larkin, "But where would the world be if you couldn't trust somebody?"]]

* A lot of con artists give the marks the impression that they're coming into stolen property or are participating in illegal activity, as well as giving them opportunities to scam the scammers. When the marks do realize they've been taken, very few of them are willing to go to the police, as doing so would be admitting to a crime themselves. This is why so many scammers are able to get away with it. The BeatBag is a subtrope: give the mark something worthless in the place of something desired but illegal; they can't complain that they got oregano instead of weed, or that the stolen Xbox doesn't work.

** "None but the Lonely Heart" stars a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] [[TheBlueBeard serial murderer who preys on lonely old women into marrying him before he kills them and steals their fortunes]], with accomplices to help him in his schemes. Once he receives notes that someone might be on to him, he kills anyone he suspects of possible blackmail and/or rattling on him -- that includes all of his accomplices.

* It's brought up in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' as possibly the reason the forces of Evil have never managed to defeat the forces of Good. [[spoiler: And why all the hosts of heaven can't stop Diablo when all of the Great Evils are contained within him.]]

In short, this is ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, or even just chronic lack of trust, applied as a persistent AchillesHeel of the bad guys. Subtrope of EvilWillFail. Often results in an EnemyCivilWar or EvilVersusEvil. Compare with TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong and EvilCannotComprehendGood. The opposite is EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily and of course, HonorAmongThieves. Could be considered a form of [[PVPBalanced PVP Balance]], to make up for the fact that the heroes [[WhatTheHellHero aren't allowed]] to cross the MoralEventHorizon to prevent DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

** The Seperations of Powers of the United States Government intentionally evoked. The Founding Fathers believed that all forms of government, even a Republic, would eventually be corrupted. The limits on each branch's powers and abilities generally mean that the Government is too busy fighting itself to turn onto the people. In order for anything to happen in the Federal Government, it must meet the approval of a majority of 545 individuals (100 Senators, 435 Representatives, Nine Supreme Court Justices, and One President) to work a law of the land. That's not getting into pleasing constituency that can vote to kick out the bums and put in someone who will do the job proper. And we're not getting into UsefulNotes/AmericanFederalism that can also gum up the system. Considering that even with a single party majority party rule, it's very difficult to push through changes through.