# Cheating the Devil

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheating-the-devil/153615>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 8, 2003, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheating-the-devil/153615 "2003-02-08T01:13:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheating-the-devil/153615/21 "2003-02-10T16:52:19Z")

</div>

I was expecting a thread on how to beat speeding tickets.

* * *

Fagjunk Theology: Not just for sodomite propagandists anymore.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheating-the-devil/153615/22 "2003-02-10T17:01:48Z")

</div>

I remember a _Lobo_ comic where the devil made the same offer to Lobo for anything he wanted. Very cleverly…

asks for the Devil’s soul in exchange. It’s a fair trade.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheating-the-devil/153615/23 "2003-02-10T17:09:41Z")

</div>

There was an entire anthology devoted to this problem that came out in the early 1960s. It was called “Deals with the Devil”.

Fredric Brown wrote quite a few such stories. I think Robert Sheckley did, too. Larry Niven’s “Convergent Series” (It appears in his anthologies **The Shape of Space** and, appropriately, **Convergent Series** ) has already been mentioned.

I wrote a short story about it myself, entitled “Device Invected”, that appeared in the U. of Rochester literary magazine back in the early eighties. I’ve since read it in public a few times.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheating-the-devil/153615/24 "2003-02-10T17:19:39Z")

</div>

I’m surprised no one has used the classic “Homer and the Forbidden Doughnut” or whatever the short was called as an example on how to beat the devil.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheating-the-devil/153615/25 "2003-02-10T17:27:27Z")

</div>

Q: What does the dyslexic blues man do at midnight?

A: He goes down to the crossroads to sell his soul to Santa. :rolleyes:

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheating-the-devil/153615.md?page=1)