# Any Tips for Sneaking Around and Being all Ninja-Covert-Like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 9, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341 "2003-07-09T22:55:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/41 "2003-07-10T19:27:17Z")
Remember that in the dark your peripheral vision is better at seeing movement than looking dead on. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/42 "2003-07-10T19:27:47Z")
Don’t wear black. I can tell you this from experience in live-action role-playing-games. Wear grey, and not too dark, either. Seriously: you’re a LOT harder to see in medium grey than in black. If you want to go farther, you might experiment with camo patterns, to break up your silhouette. I don’t have any personal experience with this, however. I like Pirates! (And my advice was actually somewhat serious: if you walk into a place with confidence and an air of authority, people will tend to assume you belong there. This, too, I have personal experience with!) Trinopus ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/43 "2003-07-10T19:40:41Z")
Put the damn pebble in your pocket. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/44 "2003-07-10T20:16:51Z")
In his writings William S. Burroughs (sp?) gives the secret to invisibility. What is it? I’ve probably given too much of a hint already, what with the internet search engines and all. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/45 "2003-07-10T20:17:47Z")
My ninja tip straight from a security guard at the [Sackler Gallery](http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/default.htm). The easiest way to be invisible in a busy place is to simply stand very still against the wall. That 300-pound guard would nonchalantly wander out of my field of vision and then park _right next to me_, just waiting to see how long he could loom there without me noticing. He claimed sometimes I never did notice him before he left again. It was really pretty impressive. The dude claimed that there is a real art to standing still. The two important things I can remember are controlled breathing and not moving one’s head while looking around, which is apparently difficult to do. People are very sensitive to head movement. Another ninja-like maxim a former veteran once told me: “never, _ever_ go out the same way you came in.” …Which is also apparently difficult to do. I once asked a police officer what he did when he lost someone in a car chase. “I just pull off the road and wait,” he told my friends and me. “They _always_ come back.” ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/46 "2003-07-10T20:24:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Trinopus \* > \*\*Don’t wear black. I can tell you this from experience in live-action role-playing-games. Wear grey, and not too dark, either. Seriously: you’re a LOT harder to see in medium grey than in black. \*\* More proof that I don’t read threads carefully enough. I saw a program in which a former member of the Skunk Works explained that the reason that stealth fighter-bomber was shot down over Serbia (Kosovo?) was because the macho military wanted a macho color like black instead of a stealthy color like grey (maybe pastel grey, IIRC). Also, rub dirt on your face to remove any shine. ---
**Author:** ![Atlantis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Atlantis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atlantis)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/47 "2003-07-10T21:51:29Z")
Everything I need to know about being a ninja I learned from the Ninja Turtles. If all else fails, playing it bogart usually works. ---
**Author:** ![BlueMit11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@BlueMit11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueMit11)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/48 "2003-07-10T22:54:43Z")
Thanks a lot guys. You should all expect visits from me now-but don’t look too hard. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/49 "2003-07-10T23:52:26Z")
For some strange reason, I feel compelled to post in this thread. Hmm. Curious. ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/50 "2003-07-10T23:54:03Z")
glad to help, but my friend’s blood brother the hippo will be waiting for you, ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/51 "2003-07-11T00:34:02Z")
If you tape a few branches and leaves to your ninja outift, and then tell everyone who comes near that you are a hedge, you will escape detection. Or so I read somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Tarantula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e274bd/32.png) [@Tarantula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarantula)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/52 "2003-07-11T07:48:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Trinopus \* > \*\*Don’t wear black. I can tell you this from experience in live-action role-playing-games. Wear grey, and not too dark, either. Seriously: you’re a LOT harder to see in medium grey than in black… \*\* Also remember to paint your butter. Gotta be grey… that bit of yellow in the dark could give pirates the very chance they need to finish you off… ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341/53 "2003-07-11T10:42:02Z")
they don’t carry butter naked silly, they’re all wrapped up… what do you get when the ninja uses the butter as a projectile weapon? _slips out quietly_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-for-sneaking-around-and-being-all-ninja-covert-like/187341.md?page=2)