wp:don't stuff beans up your nose

{{short description|Humorous Wikipedia essay}}

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{{Humorous essay|WP:BEANS|WP:BEAN}}

{{nutshell|If you tell people not to do something, your advice may backfire and instead tempt them to do it. In fact, they might have not even thought of doing it until you told them not to do it. See also WP:NEEDTOKNOW for a more in-depth presentation of this maxim.}}

File:Do not press button.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Do NOT click on the big red button. Not under any circumstances!

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As an old story goes:

{{quote|The little boy's mother was going off to the market. She worried about her son, who was always up to some mischief. She sternly admonished him, "Be good. Don't get into trouble. Don't eat all the chocolate. Don't spill all the milk. Don't throw stones at the cow. Don't fall down the well." The boy had done all of these things on previous market days. Hoping to head off new trouble, she added, "And don't stuff beans up your nose!" This was a new idea for the boy, who promptly tried it out.}}

In our zeal to head off others' unwise actions, we may put forth ideas they have not entertained before. As the popular saying goes, "don't give 'em any ideas".

For example, don't give potential vandals examples of how to cause disruption. This may will tempt them to do it.{{refn|group=Note|The truth of this proposition is evidenced by the controversy of Monty Python's Life of Brian and the impact of this at the box-office. To quote Michael Palin: "There is not a great deal of religious satire in Brian, although there is some comment on organised religion. The religious critics in America told people not to go and see it, which was wonderful for the box office."{{cite web|last=Luck|first=Richard|title=The Making Of Monty Python's Life Of Brian|url=http://sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/very-naughty-boys-the-making-of-monty-pythons-life-of-brian|website=Sabotage Times|language=en|date=26 September 2016|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20111028182902/http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/very-naughty-boys-the-making-of-monty-pythons-life-of-brian/|archive-date=28 October 2011|url-status=dead}}}}

In a similar vein, there are many areas of the encyclopedia that rely on, or benefit from, some level of security through obscurity, such as WP:SPI. For this reason, specific cases and abuse mitigation are often left undiscussed on-wiki, and this essay is sometimes cited in such situations (often using the shortcut WP:BEANS) to drop the hint that further public explanation of a matter could be unwise. An essay explaining this in more detail is Wikipedia:There's a reason you don't know.