The 48 Laws Of Power

would
watch
thetwo
men

carefully.

If

he

sawthatthesecondcourtierhad

not

changed

inhisbehaviortowardthe

king,

hewouldconcludethatthe

firstcourtierhad

kept

the

secret,

andhewould

quicklypromote

the

man,

later

taking

himasideto

confess,

“Imeanttokill

your

friendbecauseof

certaininformationthathadreached

me,but,

whenI

investigated

the

mat-

ter,

I

found

it

wasuntrue.”

If,

on

the

other

hand,

thesecondcourtierstarted

toavoidthe

king,acting

aloofand

tense,

Chosroeswouldknowthatthese

crethadbeenrevealed.Hewouldbanthesecondcourtierfromhis

court,

letting

himknowthatthewholebusinesshad

only

beena

test,

butthat

even

though

themanhad

done

nothingwrong,

hecouldno

longer

trust

him.Thefirst

courtier,however,

hadrevealeda

secret,

andhimChosroes

wouldbanfromhisentire

kingdom.

It

may

seemanoddformof

spying

thatrevealsnot

empirical

informa:

tionbuta

person’s

character.

Often,however,

itisthebest

way

of

solving

problems

before

they

arise.

Bytemptingpeople

intocertain

acts,

you

learnabouttheir

loyalty,

their

honesty,

andsoon.Andthiskindof

knowledge

isoftenthemost

valuableofall:Armedwith

it,

you

can

predict

theiractionsinthefuture.

[ma

g

e:

The Third

Eye

of

the

Spy.

In theland of

the

two-eyed,

thethird

eye

gives

you

theomniscience

ofa

god.

Youseefurtherthan

others,

and

you

see

deeper

intothem.

Nobody

is

safefromthe

eye

but

you.

Authority:

Now,

thereasonabrilliant

sovereign

andawise

general

conquer

the

enemy

whenever

they

move,

andtheirachievements

surpass

thoseof

ordinary

men,

istheir

foreknowledge

ofthe

enemy

situation.This

“foreknowledge”

cannotbeelicitedfrom

spirits,

nor

from

gods,

nor

byanalogy

with

past

events,

not

byastrologic

calcu

lations.Itmustbeobtainedfrommenwhoknowthe

enemy

sit-

uati0n—-from

spies.

(Sun-tzu,

TheArt

if

War,

fourth

century

B.C.)

LAW 14 I05