Basic Trope: Someone confesses to a minor offense to hide the fact they're guilty of a more serious crime.
- Straight: Alice murders Bob, but confesses to a robbery that was taking place at the same time to establish an alibi.
- Exaggerated: Alice blows up the apartment building where Bob lives, killing him and dozens of others. To establish an alibi, she leaves her car illegally parked on the other side of town and lets it get ticketed.
- Downplayed: Alice strikes Bob in the back, seriously injuring him. She confesses to trying to swat a large bug that she saw on his back.
- Justified: Minor offenses normally carry lighter sentences than more serious crimes and Alice's behavior clearly implies guilt.
- Inverted: Alice commits a robbery while Bob is murdered. For some reason, she confesses to the murder despite it being the more serious crime.
- Subverted: Alice finds out about the robbery while she's being investigated for Bob's murder. But before she can confess to the robbery, Charlie confesses to it instead.
- Double Subverted: Then it comes out that Charlie was committing an arson at the time of the robbery and confessed to the robbery so he wouldn't get suspected for it.
- Parodied: Alice tries to confess to the robbery that took place while she was killing Bob, but the evidence repeatedly contradicts her and she tries to explain away the discrepancies. The thief caught on camera was taller? She was wearing stilts. The thief didn't react to something Alice is deathly allergic to? She took a pill. The thief was obviously a man? Alice talks in a lower voice.
- Zig-Zagged: After Alice kills Bob, she tries to confess to a robbery that took place at the same time. However, Charlie beats her to it and confesses to the same robbery to establish an alibi for the arson he committed. So, Alice confesses to the arson, thinking it's still a lighter sentence. It turns out that the arson claimed multiple lives and caused a large amount of property damage, so she lets the investigators prove her innocence. She then confesses to a carjacking that took place at that time, but the suspect in that was killed when he crashed the car afterwards. Finally, Alice flat out confesses to the murder. She's falsely confessed to so many other crimes, they don't believe her.
- Averted: Alice tries to make herself look innocent without saying she committed another crime.
- Enforced: The writers want Bob dead and Alice to receive light punishment for the killing. Then they come up with the idea that she confesses to a lesser crime she didn't commit.
- Lampshaded: "Your hated rival just happens to have been murdered when you were robbing this place. Am I the only one who finds that suspicious?"
- Invoked: David, the investigator, tells Alice about the robbery that occurred the night she murdered Bob. He tells her it would accrue a lighter sentence than murder and Alice admits she committed the robbery. David then reveals they caught someone in the act and Alice can't possibly be the perpetrator.
- Exploited: Eric, who actually committed the robbery Alice confessed to, makes a clean getaway and completely escapes punishment for the robbery.
- Defied:
- After Alice confesses to the robbery that took place when she was killing Bob, David bluffs her by saying they already caught the perpetrator (they didn't) so they know she's lying.
- Alice realizes she could probably pull this, but she refuses out of sheer pride.
- Discussed: "Someone is coming in to confess to the robbery. Although a murder was committed around the same time, so I have some doubts about the truth behind the confession."
- Conversed: "Sometimes, a person will confess to a crime they didn't commit. One of the reasons they do this is because they actually committed a more serious crime and they're trying to establish an alibi. So, be sure to take it with a grain of salt."
- Implied: Alice is seen confessing to a robbery. David mentions that Bob, Alice's longtime rival, was murdered the same time the robbery took place and expresses skepticism.
- Deconstructed: After Alice confesses to the robbery that took place when she killed Bob, the rightful owners of the property stolen file a civil suit against her which costs her quite a bit of money. Meanwhile, Eric, who actually committed the robbery, goes free since he's no longer a suspect, continues to perform robberies, and escalates until he kills someone himself.
- Reconstructed: Alice decides that the next time she confesses to a crime to cover up one she committed, she'll research the details so that there are no loose ends to complicate things (such as a suspect who will go free, being targeted by the victims of that crime, how serious the crime was, and so on...)
- Played for Laughs: Alice confesses to a robbery that was taking place at the same time she was killing Bob. It turns out that the stolen item was an ugly and almost worthless statue and she has to explain why she would want to steal that.
- Played for Drama: After Alice confesses to the robbery, David notices her confession doesn't square with the evidence. He launches a thorough investigation to find out if she actually was guilty and what she was actually doing on the night in question.
- Played for Horror: The stolen item actually belonged to the mob. When it isn't recovered despite Alice's confession, they send a few enforcers to get the information out of Alice. Thus begins a cat-and-mouse game with Alice trying to survive against a heavily-armed squad of gangsters.
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